LIBRARYOF CONGRESS. 

C^iaP- - Copyright .\o. 

Shelf.J.ll-6SG7 



THE 



IOWA LEGISLATURE 



OF 1896. 



CONTAINING BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE 
MEMBERS OF THE TWENTY-SIXTH GENERAL 
ASSEMBLY OF IOWA, THE STATE OFFI- 
CERS AND MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. 



BY WILLIS L. HALL. 




Dps MOINES: 
1895. 






Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1895. by Willis L. 
Hall, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PREFACE. 

This little volume is published in the hope that it may be satis- 
factory to those for whose use it is intended. Any lack of infor- 
mation concerning any person spoken of herein is to be charged 
to that individual. All have been given a fair opportunity to be 
properly represented. Those concerning whom little is said 
have failed to respond to the invitation extended to give full par- 
ticulars. WILLIS L. HALL. 

Des Moines, November, 1895. 




^ms^^^smmm 



IOWA EXECUTIVE OFFICERS. 



GOVERXOR FRAXK D. JACKSOX.— Few men at less 
than 40 years of age have attained the high honors in botli poHti- 
cal and business circles that have so easily and acceptably fallen 
upon the shoulders of Frank Darr Jackson, of Des ]\Loines. The 
governor passed his early boyhood among the rugged old hills 
of western N'ew York. He was born in Arcade, Wyoming 
county, on the 26th day of January, 1854. At the first call for 
troops the father of Iowa's governor enlisted as a private in the 
78th New York A'olunteers, and afterward was elected lieutenant 
of his company. Mrs. Jackson soon followed her husband into 
•the service and was a hospital nurse, serving with the Army of 
the Potomac. Young Jackson thus left to himself worked and 
"chored" about, attending school a part of the time. At the close 
of the war, or in 1867, the family moved to Iowa and made their 
home at Jesup, Buchanan county, where the boy worked upon a 
farm during the summers and attended school winters. Desiring 
to acquire as thorough an education as possible, the young man 
entered the State Agricultural College at Ames and took a four 
3'ears' course. During vacations he worked upon a farm and 
taught school in countrv districts of Buchanan county. After 
graduating at Ames he taught school, and having acquired suffi- 
cient means, entered the law department of the Iowa State l^ni- 
versity, where he graduated. Soon after graduation, in 1877, Mr. 
Jackson was married to Miss Anna F. Brock, of Council Bluffs. 
They had together attended sch.ool at the State Agricultural Col- 
lege. Their first home was at Independence, where ^Ir. Jackson 
began the practice of h^s profession. In 1879 he changed his 
business location to Greene, Butler county, wliere he at once 
founded a lucrative practice. In college societies he had shown 
great tact in debates, and also in his ability as an organizer. Fie 
entered heartily into the campaign for the nomination of Hon. 
William Larrabee for governor in 1881, and to his effort more 
than any other one man was due the success of ^Ir. Larral^ee in 
that county. In 1882, at the opening of the session of the Senate, 
almost unexpectedly to him, he was nominated by the Repu1)li- 
cans as secretary of that body, thereby defeating I*"rcd Faulkes of 
Cedar Rapids. He made an excellent secretary, and in 1884 was 
unanimously chosen secretary without opposition. His excel- 
lent administration made him available as a candidate for secre- 



6 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

tary of state, and he was elected and twice renominated and re- 
elected in 1886 and 1888. In 1886 he was chosen as vice-presi- 
dent of an old line insurance company, — the Royal Union. — of 
Des Moines. In 1890 he was made president of the company, 
which position he at present holds. Mr. Jackson was nominated 
by the Rc[)ublicans for governor, August 16, 1892, while absent 
from the state, and at the polls defeated the Democratic nominee, 
Hon. Horace Boies, after one of the fiercest campaigns in the his- 
tory of Iowa politics. He is the thirteenth governor and the 
youngest man ever elected to that position in the state. He de- 
clined to be a candidate for a second term, having decided to de- 
vote himself hereafter to business. 

GENERAL F. M. DRAKE, GOVERNOR-ELECT.— The 
career of General Drake is one of thrilling interest. He has 
passed through the hardships of a pioneer, a plainsman, and now 
enjoys the comfort of all that modern convenience can supply to 
a man able to pay the bills. He was born in Schuyler county, 
Illinois, December 30, 1833. Four years later the family moved 
to Fort Madison, Iowa, and in 1846 they settled in Davis county. 
When only 20 years of age he organized a wagon train, loaded 
up with supplies and started for California. In May, 1852, he 
crossed the Missouri river. A few days after he was attacked by 
a band of 300 Pawnee Indians, but by vigorous fighting he and 
his men managed to defeat the savages. The remainder of the 
trip was made safely, and after disposing of his goods at Sacra- 
mento he returned by sea to Iowa. The next year he took an- 
other train overland. He had a hard time returning. Starting 
in the ship Yankee Blade, he was wrecked oiif Point Aguilla, and 
for five days suffered severely. The survivors were rescued by 
the Goliah, and he managed to get through on the Golden Gate. 
He next went into the mercantile business in Drakeville, Davis 
county, removing to Centerville, Appanoose county, in 1863. 
With a number of others he enlisted in Edwards' independent in- 
fantry in 1861, and was placed in command of Company A. In 
September of the same year he was made major. During the 
vigorous campaign in Alissouri he did very excellent work and 
was made lieutenant colonel of the 36th Iowa Volunteers. At 
the battle of Mark's Alills, Arkansas, he was desperately wounded 
and was reported among the dead. The enemy considered him 
mortally hurt and sent him back to the LTnion lines under a flag 
of truce. But he recovered to do a great deal more for his coun- 
try. He was in connnand of the troops that opposed Alarma- 
duke at Elkins' Ford, and for gallant conduct there was brevetted 
from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general. He was married 
to Mary J. Lord in 1855. They had six children. After the war 
General Drake settled at Centerville and took up law. This he 
followed four rears, and then turned his attention to railroad 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 7. 

building, starting with the 'M., I. & N. He has since been con- 
cerned in a number of other enterprises of a similar nature, all of 
which have been successful financial ventures. General Drake 
is a member of the Christian church. He has the welfare of this 
denomination so much at heart that he has liberally endowed one 
of the largest educational institutions in the state in order that 
ministers may be educated to further its work. In honor of its 
founder, this institution has been named Drake University. It 
is located at Des Moines. General Drake brings into the exec- 
utive offtce ability of a high order. He is a man of ripe experi- 
ence, successful in business, liberal and broad in his views, and 
determined to give the state the very best service he can. To 
judge from the way he has conducted affairs heretofore, it is safe 
to say his administration will be strong and glorious. 

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR WARREN S. DUNGAN.— 
The lieutenant governor of Iowa is a man well known in army, 
legislative and political circles in the state. 
In all these lines he has served with distinc- 
tion. Born in Frankfort Springs, Pennsyl- 
vania, September 12, 1822, he spent his youth 
and early manhood in his native state. At 
the academv in Frankfort he gained his first 
educational advancement. Then study in a 
law ofhce gave him the knowledge neces- 
sary for admission to the bar at Beaver. It 
was in 1856 he became a full fledged lawyer. 
That same year he moved to Lucas county, 
Iowa, which has been his home ever since. 
On September i, 1862, he was sworn into the 
United States service as a private soldier. On 
September 22 he was commissioned lieutenant colonel, 34th Iowa, 
in which position he remained until May 25, 1865, when he was 
made brevet colonel of the U. S. Volunteers. He was mustered 
out of the service August 15, 1865, having served actively during 
the entire period. Returning to Chariton he resumed his law 
practice. He was a Senator in the Ninth General Assembly from 
the district composed of Lucas and Monroe counties. In 1880 
and 1882 he was a member of the House from Lucas, and in 1888 
and 1890 was the Senator from Lucas and Wayne, and in the lat- 
ter ('82) he was chairman of the Judiciary committee. In party 
offices Mr. Dungan has likewise been honored. In 1872 he went 
to Philadelphia as a delegate to the Republican national conven- 
tion which nominated Grant, and he had the pleasure of casting 
one of Iowa's electoral votes for the veteran. Wben the Repub- 
lican state conventions meet it is the usual thing to see Colonel 
Dungan in attendance either at the head or as a member of the 
Lucas county delegation. Colonel Dungan is an active member 




8 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 

of the Presbyterian church, being an elder in the congregation at 
Chariton. His incHnation toward secret societies has not ex- 
tended beyond the Grand Army and the mihtary order of the 
Loyal Legion of the L'nited States, both of which he is an hon- 
ored member. Colonel Dungan was married at Chariton April 
3, 1859, to Aliss Abby Kingman Proctor. Seven children were 
born to them before Mrs. Dimgan's death, which occurred about 
jfifteen years ago. Lieutenant Governor Dungan was a candi- 
date for renomination this year, and no opposition developed until 
after General Drake was named for governor. Then the major- 
ity of the convention decided it would not do to have the candi- 
dates for the two highest offices come from the same Congres- 
sional district. So he was defeated for renomination, not because 
of unfitness or unfaithful service, but merely on account of local- 
ity. He retires from the presidency of the Senate loved and re- 
spected by all his associates. 

HON. MATT PARROTT. LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR- 
ELECT. — Matt Parrott is one of the printers who has managed 
to make fame and fortune for himself. He 
was born in Schoharie, Schoharie coimty, 
New York, May 11, 1837. He attended 
school until 13 years of age and then entered 
, a printing office to learn the trade. At the 

". ^^ end of a year his father wanted him to re- 

ll^^ turn to school, but the business had such a 

^^^jany^^^ fascination for the youngster that he went 

f|^^^H^^Ik back to the Patriot office after trying school 
^^HJPPIP^ for a couple of days, and that was the last of 
school. In 1857 he went to Troy, and in a 
couple of years drifted west. He worked 
for a short time in Chicago, Davenport and 
Burlington. In 1857 he went to Anamosa 
and became a part proprietor of the Eureka. Here he remained 
five years. He thought there was a field for a paper at Morris, 
Illinois, but three months' experience and the loss of his savings 
convinced him otherwise. Returning to Davenport, he worked 
for a time for a large printing house, and in 1869 associated him- 
self with J. J. Smart in the publication of the Iowa State Reporter 
at Waterloo. He has remained there ever since, and with his 
son is now sole proprietor of the paper. Locally, he has been hon- 
ored with the town offices. He has represented Black Hawk 
and Grundy counties in the state Senate, and was state binder for 
six years. Last summer he was a candidate for governor. 
When Drake received the nomination the temper of the conven- 
tion was to nominate a man from some other part of the state for 
the second place on the ticket. Mr. Parrott was not a candi- 
date, but he was placed there in spite of himself, and once nomi- 




THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 9 

nated he made the run. He is a member of the Episcopal church 
and stands high in Masonic circles. He was married in 1859 
to Miss Frank ^I. Field at Davenport. 

HON. C. G. M'CARTHY, STATE AUDITOR.— In the office 
of auditor of state abilities of a high order are required, and the 
present incumbent, the Hon. C. G. Mc- 
Carthy, is recognized as a peer of any of his 
predecessors in the position. He is now 
serving his second term as state auditor. In 
Story county he served four terms as audi- 
tor, and was considered very efficient in the 
work of the office. Fie was born in Toledo, 
Ontario, January 29, 1843, his parents being 
Florence and EHzabeth Moore McCarthy, 
natives of Ireland. He was the sixth child 
of a family of eig'ht. Five of the children 
are yet living. He was raised and educated 
in Canada, and came to Story county, Iowa, 
in 1864. He taught school during that win- 
ter, then went back to Canada for a few years. In 1867 he re- 
turned to Story county, took possession of a farm near Ames and 
settled for good in the state. He alternately taught school and 
worked on the farm until 1881, when he was elected to the posi- 
tion of auditor of Story county. He held the office until 1890. 
In the fall of 1889 he was elected to the House of the Twenty-third 
General Assembly. In the I^egislature he made many friends 
and did good work, both on the floor and in the committee rooms. 
His abilities were soon recog^nized, and when the Republican 
state convention met in the summer of 1890 he was one of the 
three prominent candidates for the nomination for auditor of state, 
but owing to peculiar circumstances prevailing at the time failed 
to secure the nomination. Two years later Mr. McCarthy was 
easily nominated and elected. His first term expired December 
31, 1894. Besides being engaged in farming and school teach- 
ing, Mr. McCarthy has been actively interested in a number of 
business concerns. At Ames he was one of the main men in a 
company organized for the purpose of importing and breeding- 
fine horses. In Des Moines in 1889 he helped organize and is 
now president of the Iowa Savings and Loan Association, which 
is one of the strongest financial corporations in the state. Mr. 
McCarthy was married February 3, 1870, to Miss Laura Barnes. 
Five children have been born to them, all of whom are living. He 
is an active member of the Knights of Pythias and has represented 
his lodge in the grand lodge of the state. A hard working, suc- 
cessful man in everything he has tried, Mr. McCarthy is reasona- 
bly sure of being retained in the position he now holds as long as 
any of his predecessors. During the year 1893 he demonstrated 




10 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

liis abilities as a man to deal with financial problems. On ac- 
count of the panic there were more questions of banking and 
finance to determine than had come up for ten years previous. 
He handled them all with such good judgment that the bankers 
and insurance men all over the state, irrespective of party, are loud 
in their praises of his conduct. He is now serving his second 
term, having received renomination without opposition. 

HON. JOHN HERRIOTT. STATE TREASURER.— Hon. 
John Herriott, state treasurer, is a native of Pennsylvania, and is 
51 years of age. When the war broke out Mr. 
Herriott was working in a machine shop in 
Pittsburg. His loyal and patriotic nature in- 
duced him, among the first, to of¥er his ser- 
vices to the nation, and he enlisted in the ist 
Pennsylvania Reserve Cavalry and went to 
the front, where he remained for three years, 
I >r until the expiration of his enlistment, when 
lie returned to his home, where failing health 
compelled liim to remain. He was in all the 
])rincipal engagements in which his regiment 
particiijated. and his body bears to-day the scars of honorable 
wounds received in service, while his health is considerably en- 
feebled as a result of a disease contracted during the period of his 
patriotic sacrifice. Having had meagre educational advantages, 
Mr. Herriott, on his return from the war, attended school for a 
time, but his physical condition was too weak to sustain much men- 
tal effort, and he was compelled to abandon his school studies. 
But nevertheless there are few college graduates who possess a 
better practical education than Mr. Herriott. He has been a 
great reader of books and a close student of current events all his 
years, and has outstripped in the race of life many men who had 
unlimited early advantages. In 1865 Mr. Herriott came to Scott 
county, Iowa, and engaged in farming until 1873, when he re- 
moved to Stuart and opened a book and drug store, in which busi- 
ness he is still engaged. In politics Mr. Herriott has always been 
a devoted and active Republican. In 1877 he was elected treas- 
urer of Guthrie county and served for four years. He was a 
member of the State Central committee in 1885-6-7, and chairman 
of his county committee during the gubernatorial contest of 1893, 
largely increasing the vote of his party in that county by uniting 
opposing factions. He is prominent in the councils of the Re- 
publican League of Iowa. In his home county he is "guide, 
philosopher and friend." No worthy cause ever appealed to him 
in vain for assistance, and as a mediator between antagonistic in- 
dividuals and factions he has a reputation that is wide-spread and 
enviable. As an evidence of his general popularity it may be 
said that on hearing of his nomination for state treasurer, the 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 



11 




business men of his home city, regardless of party, united m a 
congratulatory telegram, Avhich was sent to him at Des Moines. 
Mr. Herriott can look forward to a serene and peaceful old age. 
His wife and three sons and one daughter remain to cheer his de- 
clining years. One son, Dr. F. I. Herriott, is a graduate of Iowa 
College and the John Hopkins University, and at present is fill- 
ing the chair of Professor Jesse ]\Iacey during his absence in 
Europe. 

HON. W. ^I. ^^I'FARLAND, SECRETARY OF STATE.— 
Iowa's secretary of state, the Hon. W. M. McFarland, is a native 
of Indiana. In historic Posey county on 
April I, 1848, he was born. Sylvanus and 
Elizabeth McFarland, his parents, kept him 
there for some time, giving him a common 
school education. On moving to Iowa after 
the war times were over they sent him to the 
Iowa Wesleyan University at Mount Pleas- 
j\ ^ ant. There he applied himself industriously 

^jf^B^K^Kfl^ and in 1873 came out with full honors and 
^^^^r^^^^l the degree of bachelor of arts. Beginning 
^^^A ^^^H the struggle of life he tried a variety of things 
H^^^^^HHB for two 5'ears and then settled on the news- 
'^^^^^^ "^ paper business. At Brooklyn, Iowa, he es- 
tablished the Chronicle, and until 1884 was 
its proprietor. During this period he found time to go to the 
State University at Iowa City for a law course, which was com- 
pleted in June, 1880. Several years after graduating Mr. Mc- 
Farland moved tO' Estherville, where he established another news- 
paper and also took up his law practice. When time for elections 
to the Twenty-second General Assembly arrived he was put up 
as the Republican candidate and came to Des Moines as a mem- 
ber of the House. In 1890 he was on hand again in the same 
capacity and was among the Republican leaders in the six weeks' 
struggle over the organization. While the Legislature was still 
in session he was brought out for the office of secretary of state. 
This announcement was favorably received. At the Republican 
convention he was nominated and in the fall elected. He is now 
serving his third term. Mr. McFarland has a liking for secret 
societies, and has joined the Masons, Odd Fellows, Red Men and 
Knights of Pythias. April 9, 1879, he was married to Miss Flor- 
ence Conaway, at Brooklyn, Iowa. They have two daughters, 
Fannie, aged 15, and Welma, aged 8. Mr. McFarland has made 
a good clean record in his ofhce. Mr. McFarland was a candi- 
date for governor before the last Republican convention, but, as 
he admits himself, the handicap of being in ofifice beat him. jMr. 
McFarland's term of office as secretary of state will expire Janu- 
ary I, 1897. 




12 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

SUPERINTENDENT HENRY SAP.IN.— Henry Sabin was 
born in Pomfret, Windham county, Connecticut, October 2},, 
1829. His father, Noah Sabin, was an in- 
dustrious farmer and gave his son the best 
educational advantages of those days. He 
fitted for college at Woodstock Academy, 
Connecticut, and at 18 years of age entered 
Amherst, graduating in 1852 with lionors. 
During the next five years he had charge of 
the union school at Naugatuck, Connecticut. 
The years immediately following were spent 
as owner and principal of the Collegiate In- 
stitute at Matawan, New Jersey. In 1864 
lie was chosen principal of the Eaton gram- 
mar school at New Haven, Connecticut, in 
which position he acquitted himself with sig- 
nal al)ility. Not long after he moved west, and in 1870 was 
superintendent of schools at Clinton, Iowa. During the past 
twenty-three years he has been one of the most active and influen- 
tial members of the vState Teachers' Association. His papers 
have been among the ablest read before that bod}' during the 
thirty years of its history. He has lectured before the associa- 
tions of other states, and his efforts have always been of recog- 
nized ability. He has read several papers before the National 
Educational Association and was president of the department of 
superintendents in i8()2. In 1878 he was chosen president of 
the state association. He held the position of superintendent of 
schools at Clinton until 1887, when he was chosen state superin- 
tendent, having l)een nominated by the Republicans. For two 
terms he held the office, then gave way to the Hon. John B. 
Knoepfler. In 1893 ^^e was again tendered the nomination and 
along with the rest of the Republican ticket put back into power. 
He was elected for the fourth term this fall. 

State Superintendent Sabin was prominently mentioned in con- 
nection witli the presidency for next year, but when the national 
council needed a man for chairman of the committee on the rural 
school problem and at once chose Mr. Sabin, that made it out of 
the quest-'on for his friends to present his name, as the duties of 
the chairmanship would necessarily preclude the acceptance of 
others. This committee will be known as the committee of 
twelve. The association appropriated $2,500 for it to carry on 
its work, and it will operate in much the same way that the com- 
mittees of ten and fifteen did. That the results of its work will 
be quite as satisfactory and influential in its particular field as that 
of the other committees, now famous, may be confidently expected. 
The selection of Air. Sabin was a well deserved compliment to 
him and an honor to Iowa. 

HON. J. W. LUKE.— In both Illinois and Iowa the Hon. J. 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 13 

A\'. Luke has had a long term of pubhc service. As a soldier he 
fought in the civil war, then he was sherift, prosecuting attorney, 
member of the Legislature and finally railway commissioner. He 
was born in Albany county, New York, Alarch 31, 1840, and ten 
years later was brought to Illinois by his parents. He attended 
school and taught alternately until the outbreak of the civil war, 
when he enlisted in Company E, 15th Illinois Infantry, and was 
chosen lieutenant on the organization of the company. At Shiloh, 
as captain, he was wounded twice and laid up for two months. 
Returning he finished his service. At the close of the war he was 
elected sherifT of Jo Daviess county, Illinois, which position he 
held for two years. Then he took up law and was admitted in 1867. 
It was not long till he was made prosecuting attorney of his 
county for two terms. On retiring to private life he resumed 
law practice. In 1881 he moved to Hampton, Iowa. From his 
county he was elected to the lower House in the Twenty-second 
and Twenty-third General Assemblies, and his record on the rail- 
road question was such that the Republicans thought he would 
make a good man on the conmiission. He was nommated and 
elected in 1890 and again in 1893. In the administration of the 
office he has made a very good record. ]\Ir. Luke was married 
in September, 1866, to Sarah A. Yanngton, of Jo Daviess county, 
Illinois. They have nine children, seven sons and two daugh- 
ters. He is a Mason and a member of the Grand Army of the 
Republic. 

HON. C. L. DAVIDSON.— A valuable member of the rail- 
way commission is the Hon. C. L. Davidson, of Sioux county. 
He was Ijorn in Knox county, Ohio, in 1846. 
Just before he was 5 years of age his mother 
died. Then he found a home in the family 
of John Robertson, a staunch L'nited Scotch- 
Presbyterian, his foster parent. At the age 
of 14 he removed to Iowa and located in 
Louisa county, where he engaged in farm- 
ing. Later he moved to Washington coun- 
ty, and, in 1862, when brave men were need- 
ed, young Davidson enlisted in Company 
A, 25th Iowa, commanded by Senator Palm- 
er. After three years of meritorious service, 
during which time he took part in the battle of Chickasaw Bayou, 
where he was wounded, and in the siege of Vicksburg, and the 
engagements at Arkansas Post, Cherokee Station and Caney's 
Creek, he was mustered out July 5, 1865. He returned home 
and took up his studies at school, having enlisted while he was 
preparing for college. After acquiring all the education his 
time and means would permit, he engaged in the real estate busi- 
ness at Galesburg, Illinois. In 1871 he returned to the Hawk- 
eye state and located in Hancock county. Two vears later he re- 




14 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

moved to Kossuth county, to Osceola county in 1875 and Sioux 
county in 1879, locating at Hull, where he has since resided. In 
1878 ^Ir. Davidson graduated in the law department of the North- 
western University in Chicago. His study of law was to more 
fully prepare himself for business life. He has been an extensive 
dealer in real estate, having handled the larger portion of the 
nort'hern part of the Des Moines river lands, the Iowa land of the 
Sioux City and St. Paul railway, and the grants of the McGregor 
and ]\lissouri railway. He has improved and sold as farms 16,- 
000 acres of land during the past fifteen years. Mr. Davidson 
represented Lyon. Pl}'mouth and Sioux counties in the lower 
house of the Nineteenth General Assembly. He was president 
of the State Sunday School Association in 1885; was department 
commander of the G. A. R. of Iowa in 1891 ; commander Com- 
pany E of the 4th Regiment, Iowa National Guard, for five years; 
judge advocate of the Second Brigade for two years, and is at 
present one of the commissioners of the Iowa Soldiers' Home at 
Marshalltown. 1lie subject of this sketch sprang from a mili- 
tary ancestry. His grandfather was adjutant of the 34th United 
States Infantry, and his father a colonel in the Ohio militia. His 
great grandfather was second in command under Commodore 
Perry during the historic engagement on Lake Erie. He is a 
tried friend of the soldier, and by personal efforts has secured 
thirty thousand dollars in pensions for the veterans in his own 
town and vicinity, without charging for his services, and in many 
cases paying the expenses himself. Mr. Davidson is a Knight 
Temj)lar. He is a home man in every sense of the word, being 
intensely devoted to his family and thoroughly domestic in his 
nature. He was elected to his present position in 1894, and has 
shown marked ability in handling questions submitted to him. 

HON. GEORGE W. PERKINS.— The Repuljlicans in 1892 

decided to put a farmer on the railway commission and selected 

the Hon. George W. Perkins, of Fremont 

county, as their man. He was elected and 

will hold office until January, 1896. Mr. 
Perkins was born at Derry, New Hampshire, 
October 13, 1832. His parents, John and 
Mary Searle Perkins, took good care to send 
him to school, so he grew up pretty well in- 
P'H^^^ formed. He engaged in teaching, and was 

^^^^"^^^^ afterwards in the mercantile line. On com- 
^flHH^^^H| ing west in early manhood, he settled first in 
^^^^|^^^H| Illinois, where he was married at Wethers- 
HHHHHp field, July 13, 1857, to Ellen E. Little. Iowa 
^^^^^ ^^^ seemed to offer brighter prospects to the 
young couple, so they moved to Eremont 
county. There they settled down on a farm and prospered. 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 15 

When war time came Perkins offered himself for enhstment, but 
A^vas rejected for physical disabilities, his eyesight being defective. 
He pursued his calling without making any effort for public hon- 
ors till he was nominated for Senator from Page and Fremont 
counties in 1889. He was easily elected and served out his term. 
In 1892 he was elected railway commissioner. His family con- 
sists of three sons and one daughter. One son is practicing medi- 
cine in Chicago and stands high in his profession. Mr. Perkins 
is right at home in his railway Avork and makes a valuable member 
of the commission. This year Mr. Perkins was elected to serve 
his second term as railway commissioner. 

JUDGE JOSIAH GIVEN.— General Josiah Given, chief jus- 
tice of the Iowa supreme court, is a veteran of the Mexican war 
and is the oldest judge among the six on the supreme bench. 
He was born in Pennsylvania August 30, 1828. Josiaih and Jane 
Given, his parents, moved to Ohio soon after he was born, and 
their boy was sent to the district schools in Holmes county. Judge 
Given was an active boy when the Mexican trouble broke out. 
He enlisted as a drummer and went to the front with the 4th Ohio 
Regiment. With them he remained throughout the war. He 
subsequently studied law and after being admitted practiced for 
some time in Ohio, then came to Iowa. He was in the west when 
the war of the rebellion broke out. This time, by reason of his 
previous experience, he was made a sergeant on enlisting, but 
rapidly rose to the rank of captain, then lieutenant colonel, colonel 
and finally brevet brigadier general. In the civil war he was 
with the 24th Ohio at first, but was transferred to the i8th Ohio. 
Before the close of the war he was put in charge of the 74th Ohio 
Volunteers. He was in the struggle for the entire period. Gen- 
eral Given was in charge of a brigade during the Atlanta cam- 
paign. In civil life he has filled a number of positions of trust. 
He was postmaster of the House of the Thirty-ninth Congress, 
lias been a member of the Iowa House of Representatives, deputy 
commissioner of internal revenue under Grant, wbich place he 
resigned on being elected district attorney of the Polk county 
judicial district, and just previous to his elevation to the supreme 
bench of the state had served a number of terms on the circuit and 
district benches in Polk ,county. It was his good work there 
which gained him his present place. Judge Given is a ]\Iason 
and always is on hand at Grand Army meetings. Pie attends the 
Presbyterian church. Judge Given was renominated and elected 
this fall to the position he now occupies for another term. 

JUDGE JAMES H. ROTHROCK.— The senior justice of the 
Iowa supreme court in point of service is James H. Rothrock, of 
Cedar Rapids. His first term on that bench began in 1876. Pie 
was born in Milroy, Pennsylvania, in 1829, his parents being 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 17 

Joseph and Sarah Rothrock. At P^rankhn College, Ohio, he re- 
ceived a thorough education, and in 1854 began the active prac- 
tice of his profession in Ohio. After six years in Highland coun- 
ty, where he was prosecuting attorney for two terms, he removed 
to Tipton, Iowa. It was not long before Mr. Rothrock received 
recognition, for he was elected to the House of the Ninth General 
Assembly in 1862. He entered the army soon after and rose to 
the rank of lieutenant colonel of the 35th Iowa Infantry. Re- 
turning after the war he resumed his law practice. He was elect- 
ed judge of the eighth district court in 1867, which position he 
filled steadily until the Republican party called him to higher hon- 
ors. On the supreme bench he has rendered many important 
decisions, and the fact that he has been kept in that place for so 
many years is the best evidence that he is satisfactory as a judge. 

JUDGE GIFFORD S. ROBIXSOX.— GifTord S. Robinson 
is one of the best known jurists in the state, having been in active 
practice since 1870. Judge Robinson was born in Tremont, 
Tazewell county, Illinois, May 28, 1843. His parents were Israel 
W. and Cornelia Robinson, nee Leonard. They gave him an 
excellent education, as he not only took the common school 
course all the way through, but passed on into the Illinois State 
Normal School and afterwards graduated from the law depart- 
ment of Washington University at St. Louis. In the records of 
the 115th Illinois Infantry his name is to be found as private, 
wounded and disabled at the battle of Chickamauga, September 
20, 1863. Not long after t'nis he came to Iowa, settling at Storm 
Lake, Buena Vista county. His abilities as a public man were 
soon recognized. He has held the offices of mayor of Storm 
Lake, county attorney of Buena Yista. county. Representative in 
the Sixteenth General Assembly, director of the State Normal 
School, and for three sessions was a member of the Iowa Senate, 
in the Nineteenth, Twentieth and Twenty-first General Assemblies. 
During his last term as Senator he was offered the position of 
raihvay commissioner by Governor Larrabee, but declined the 
honor. When the Republican convention met in the summer of 
1887 Senator Robinson was named for supreme judge and tri- 
umphantly elected. The honor was again conferred upon him 
in the fall of 1893. judge Robinson is a faithful member of the 
Grand Army of the Republic. In religious matters he is a lib- 
eral. Throughout his whole public career, covering a period of 
over twenty years. Judge Robinson has been held in high esteem 
by all with vdiom he has been associated. 

'JUDGE HORACE E. DEEMER.— The youngest associate 
justice of the supreme court is a native of Indiana, having been 
born in ]\Iarshall county in 1858. When 7 years of age he moved 
with his parents to Cedar county, Iowa, residing on a farm near 



18 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 

Springdale, and attending country schools until 1868. when he 
moved to \\'est Liberty. Here he entered the public schools, 
and after four years of close application, finished the course un- 
der tile tutorship of N. W. 'Macy, at present a district judge. 
Tliroug"h the advice of the latter he was induced to enter the State 
University, in 1873. He then worked in his father's lumber yard, 
and took a special course in science and the languages, studying 
at night and during spare hours. In 1876 Mr. Deemer engaged 
in the furniture and undertaking business in his home town, in 
which employment he continued until the fall of 1878, when he 
matriculated in the law department of the State University. 
Graduating in 1879, he went to Lincoln, Nebraska, and entered 
the law office of Lamb, Billingsley & Lambertson. He later 
formed a partnership with J. 'Si. Junkin, of Red Oak, and engaged 
in the practice of law in that city, under the firm name of Junkin 
& Deemer. The business of this firm constantly increased until 
it grew to large proportions. When the Legislature passed the 
act in 1886 changing the judicial districts of the state, Mr. Deem- 
er was nominated as one of the judges, and elected by a large ma- 
jority. In 1890 be was renominated and re-elected by a still 
larger majority — larger than that of any other candidate on the 
ticket. In 1894 he was appointed to the office of supreme judge 
by Governor Jackson, the Legislature having passed an act in- 
creasing the number of judges on the supreme bench. He was 
unanimously nominated to succeed himself by the Republican 
state convention, and was easily elected, receiving the largest ma- 
jority of any candidate on the ticket. He was warmly and gen- 
erously endorsed by the bar of his district for the position to which 
he was appointed. He possesses judicial ability of a high order 
and a mind well balanced, and his decisions command the unquali- 
fied respect of the bar. 

JUDGE C. T. GRANGER.— The life of Judge Charles T. 
Granger has been given almost exclusively to law, with very little 
devoted to politics and outside work. He was born in Monroe 
county. New York, October 9, 1835. With his parents he came 
west when a child and received his education in Waukegan, Illi- 
nois. He was a young man just getting started in practice when 
the war broke out. Enlisting in the 27th Iowa Infantry, he 
served with gallantry and distinction for three years, and at the 
time of his discharge was captain of Company K. On returning 
to Iowa at the end of the trouble he resumed the practice of his 
profession, settling in Mitchell county. Here he was elected 
superintendent of schools, then district attorney and finally circuit 
judge. In this position he remained fourteen years. Imme- 
diately following this he was for two years on the district bench. 
Long and creditable service in these positions gave him a fund of 
experience which was extremely valuable. When the Republic- 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 19 

aiis of the state in 1888 were casting about for a suitable man for 
the supreme bench the friends of J^idge Granger thought he was 
the most available man in the state. They announced this fact, 
worked hard and the state convention nominated him. In the 
canvass he made an easy run and was elected. His first term 
expired December 31, 1894. When the Republicans came to 
nominate his successor there was no opposition, and he was 
chosen for a second term. He has made a good record on the 
supreme bench, is a hard and careful worker and his opinions are 
among the best ever filed in this tribunal. Personally Judge 
Granger is a very pleasant man. Without the least ostentation or 
stififness when among a number of friends, he is an entertaining 
conversationalist and can listen with as much interest as when 
talking himself. He is a member of the Alasonic fraternity, and 
while not a member of any church believes and follows out the 
general principles of the Christian religion. 

JUDGE L. G. KINNE. — The only Democrat on the supreme 
bench in Iowa is Judge L. G. Kinne. He was born in Syracuse, 
New York, November 5, 1845, went through the schools of his 
native town and afterAvards graduated from the law department 
of the State University of Michigan. Coming west he settled at 
Toledo, Iowa. Being a man of active and progressive turn of 
mind, he lost no time in taking part in public affairs. He was 
elected mayor and city attorney of Toledo, having been placed in 
the field by the Democrats. As he was a good man and one who 
could commiand attention and respect, he frequently attended the 
state conventions of his party and took a prominent part in its 
councils, serving several years on the state central committee. 
He was selected as the candidate to run against Larrabee for gov- 
ernor, but as the state was strongly Republican at that time Mr. 
Kinne was compelled to accept with easy grace a defeat which was 
entirely expected, not because he was an unfit man in any way, 
but for the reason that he was of the minority party. After this 
defeat he returned to Toledo, resumed his law practice and was 
afterwards chosen district judge in the seventeenth judicial dis- 
trict. This position he resigned to take the editorial chair of the 
Des Moines Leader, the Democratic state organ, but the arrange- 
ment lasted only a few months. He again resumed his practice 
at Toledo and kept at it till he received the nomination for judge 
of the supreme court in 1891. That year the Democrats showed 
great strength, and as Mr. Kinne had made himself popular all 
over the state he was elected. His Democratic friends were will- 
ing to stake anything that he would be a good judge, and in this 
he has not fallen below their expectations in the least. Although 
considerably younger than his associates, Judge Kinne shows a 
clear knowledge of law and a careful mind in rendering his opin- 
ions. His term will not expire until December 31, 1897. 



20 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

Hox. MiLTox R^:MLI-:^^ attorxry general.— a 

Republican who has worked hard for the success of his party in 
spite of ovenvhehnino- odds ag-ainst him is the Hon. Mihon Reni- 
ley, of Iowa City, at present attorney g-eneral of Iowa. The 
county of Johnson after the enactment of the i)rohibition laws l)c- 
came a Democratic stronghold, and one of tlie faithful workers 
for the Republican side has always been Air. Remley. He was 
born in Lewisburg, West Mrginia. October 12, 1844. The first 
eleven years of his life were spent in his native state, and the re- 
mainder have been passed in Iowa. With the exception of the 
seven years intervening between 1867 and 1874, when he was at 
Anamosa practicing law, he has lived at Iowa City. Besides at- 
tending the common schools he took the full classical course in 
the Iowa State University, graduating in 1867. He immediately 
commenced the study of law and was admitted to practice in 1868. 
He has been in active law practice ever since that time. During 
the war he offered himself for enlistment; he w^as not of age, and 
as his parents had already lost two sons in the struggle, they re- 
fused to give their consent. As he could not be active at the 
front he busied himself in organizing Union Leagues. He was 
chairman of the Johnson county central committee for several 
years, was a delegate to the national convention at Chicago in 
1888, a presidential elector at large in 1892, and in 1894 was 
elected to the position of attorney general. He belongs to the 
Odd Fellows, Royal Arcanum, A. O. U. W. and the Beta Theta 
Pi college fraternity. Mr. Remley was married in 1869 to Miss 
Josephine Dennis. They have four children, Hubert, aged 25; 
Jessie, 21; George E., 14, and Alice, 10. Mr. Remley is a mem- 
ber of the Baptist church. 

HON. C. T. JONES.— In 1894 Hon. C. T. Jones, of Washing- 
ton county, was elected to his present position of clerk of the su- 
preme court. He was born in Kentucky in 1837, came to Iowa 
with his parents in 1842, locating in Louisa county. In 1850 they 
moved to Washington county. At the age of 12 ^Ir. Jones was 
thrown upon his own resources. He has since been self-support- 
ing. He gained all tlie knowledge he could in the public schools, 
afterwards took up law, and was admitted to the bar. Later on 
he again entered Washington College with the intention of taking 
a full collegiate course, but in 1861, when the war broke out, he 
enlisted in Company H, 2d Iowa Infantry, and was discharged in 
the fall of that year on account of injuries received in service. In 
1864 he was elected clerk of the district court of Washington 
county, and served for ten years, when he engaged in the practice 
of law with J. F. Mcjunkin. This partnership continued for six 
years, when Mr. Jones retired to accept a clerkship under the late 
E. J. Holmes, then clerk of the supreme court of Iowa. When 
Mr. Pray was elected to that office Mr. Jones became his deputy. 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 21 

a position he still occupies. His thorough knowledge of all the 
details of that office made him a desirable candidate, and at the 
July, 1894, convention he was unanimously nominated for the 
position of clerk of the supreme court. Mr. Jones brings to his 
work the ripe experience of fourteen years' constant labor in the 
office to which he aspires, together with long established habits 
of precision, care and attention to details, which are all-important 
requisites in such a position. 

HON. B. I. SALINGER.— Hon. Benjamin I. Salinger, su- 
preme court reporter, is a native of Germany, and one of those 
aggressive and industrious products of the Fatherland who have 
made the most of the advantages afforded by their adopted coun- 
try. He was born in Posen, Germany, in 1862, and at the age of 10 
emigrated with his parents to America. From early childhood 
he was ambitious to be a lawyer, and while a mere boy began to 
read law at Waverly, Iowa, alternating his pursuit of legal lore by 
acting as cow-herder and farm laborer, meanwhile gaining access 
to all books possible and finally blo'ssoming out as a country 
school teacher in Hamilton county. He afterwards read law for 
a while at Webster City, and while yet a minor he engaged in jus- 
tice practice at Spencer. One day he found himself bankrupt in 
purse and took the road to find work. He secured a position as 
school teacher in a German settlement near the present site of Hol- 
stein, at $25 a month, and out of school hours cleaned morning- 
glories out of cornfields to earn his board. When his school term 
was ended he herded cattle and lived in a shanty, where he board- 
ed himself. Mr. Morse, then postmaster at Ida, kindly loaned 
him Bancroft's History, and with these volumes the young and 
ambitious student whiled away the long hours of evening. Later 
on he secured work on a farm, and afterwards taught school sev- 
eral terms. In 1881 he married Miss Lucy M. Boylan. About 
this time the town of Manning was laid out. He secured employ- 
ment at various occupations till the school was organized and he 
was made teacher. During this period he was admitted to the 
bar. Shortly after he engaged in law practice, which has kept 
him busy ever since. He never held a public office previous to his 
election to the position he now holds. He bas done a great deal 
of active campaign work, having been on the stump in Iowa and 
under direction of the National Republican committee in New 
York state and California. He was permanent chairman of the 
Republican state convention in 1889. 

HON. W^ K. BOARDMAN.— Thie dairy interests of the state 
for the past two years have been under the supervision of the 
Hon. W. K. Boardman, of Nevada. The dairy and creamery bus- 
iness has always been his specialty, so the appointment went to a 
man well prepared for the duties assigned him. ]\Ir. Boardman 



22 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

was born at Troy, \>rmont. June 22, 1852. The famil\- moved to 
Lyons, Iowa, in 1852, and lived there till 1877, when thev went 
to the present home at Nevada. He attended the schools at Lyons 
and Dean Academy at Franklin, Alassachusetts. At Nevada he 
entered into- the wholesale produce business with his brother, 
Senator H. C. Boardman. They operate several large creameries, 
handling a large amount of butter, eggs and poultry. He was 
married about twenty years ago to Miss Addie H. Henningsen. 
They have two children, Frank ]\[., aged 17, and Lois K., aged 8. 
Mr. Boardman is a member of the Modern Woodmen and the 
Knights of Pythias. In the latter organization he has held all 
the offices in the gift of the local lodge and has several times been 
a representative in the grand lodge. He belongs to the Presby- 
terian church. In politics he has always been a Republican, and 
the position of dairy commissioner is the first public office he has 
ever held. 

HON. FREEMAN R. CONAWAY, STATE PRINTER.— 
A young man, yet very well known in Iowa politics, is the Hon. 
Freeman R. Conaway, of Poweshiek county, 
at present state printer. He was born at 
Brooklyn, Iowa, August 24, 1859, and has 
lived in the state constantly, with the excep- 
tion of two years spent in running a Repub- 
lican daily paper at Fort Smith, Arkansas. 
After finishing the schools at Brooklyn he 
attended the State Normal School at Cedar 
Falls and the Iowa Wesleyan University at 
Mt. Pleasant. He learned the printing busi- 
ness and afterwards became editor and pro- 
prietor of the Brooklyn Chronicle. VVith 
the exception of the two years in Arkansas 
and three winters spent in Des Moines as 
Legislative reporter for the State Register, he was constantly in 
charge of his paper from 1881 till 1894. He was elected state 
printer by the Twenty-fifth General Assembly, and on assuming 
the duties of the office severed his connection with the Brooklyn 
Chronicle. He was married in 1889 to Miss Minnie Cole, of Mt. 
Pleasant. They have two children, Laura Maude, aged 4, and 
Richard Cole, aged 8 months, named after Mr. Richard Clarkson, 
editor of the Iowa State Register, Mr. Conaway's life-long friend, 
and a man whom he has always respected and admired. Mr. 
Conaway has always been active in political circles. At college he 
was president of the Young Men's Republican Club, and during 
that period cast his first vote for Garfield for president. He was 
several times chairman of the Poweshiek county Republican cen- 
tral committee, and a member of the Congressional committee for 
the sixth district. He was made secretary of the Iowa League 





THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 23 

of Republican Clubs, in 1891, and a year later elected president, 
which position he still holds. His first public otBce is the one he 
holds at the present time. Mr. Conaway is a member of the Ma- 
sons, and Knights of Pythias lodges. He was for four years secre- 
tary of the Iowa Press Association, resigning his position when he 
went south. 

JOHN R. PRBIE, ADJUTANT GENERAL.— At the head 
of the military forces of the state is Major General John R. Prime. 
He was appointed to the position he now 
holds by Governor Jackson early in 1894. 
General Prime was born in Utica, New York, 
July 4, 1847. When he was 10 years of age 
the family moved to Mitchell county, Iowa. 
John went to school there, attending both 
the public schools and Cedar Valley Semin- 
ary. He left his studies at that institution to 
enlist in the Union army in 1863 at the age 
of 16. He was first with Company K, 27th 
Iowa Infantry, and later with the 12th Iowa 
Infantry, with which regiment he served till 
the close of the war. He made an excellent 
record in the campaigns in Missouri, Arkan- 
sas, Tennessee, Louisiana, [Mississippi and Alabama. He was ' 
mustered out of the service with his regiment at Davenport in 
1866. Returning to Mitchell county, he went intO' mercantile busi- 
ness, and was so occupied until 1875, ^^ which year he was elected 
county auditor. To this place he was re-elected five times. On 
leaving the office in 1888 he came to Des Moines as one of the 
org-anizers of the Royal Union Mutual Life Insurance company, 
of which he was made auditor. General Prime married in 1869 
Rosalie H. Eaton. They have two children, Carleton T. and 
AVinifred E. Prime. He is a member and past post commander 
of the G. A. R., and is well up in [Masonic circles. Ever since the 
war he has taken a lively interest in mihtary matters. When the 
Iowa National Guard was reorganized in April, 1878, he joined 
Company B of the 6th Regiment. He was made second lieutenant 
in May, first lieutenant in September, and two years later pro- 
moted to the captaincy. From this he was advanced to major 
and assistant inspector general, then elected major of the 4th 
Reg-iment. Governor Jackson, on coming into the office of gov- 
ernor, made [Major Prime his adjutant general. 

General Prime's administration has been marked by an in- 
creased efficiency in the National Guard throughout the state. On 
the several occasions when troops were called out by order of the 
governor to preserve the peace, they responded with a prompt- 
ness and displayed a spirit of courage and determination which 
would have done credit to veterans. 



24 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

During his administration the offices of tlie adjutant general 
were moved h-om the (Hngy quarters in the arsenal building to 
the beautiful rooms they now occupy in the capitol. This change 
was largely due to General 'Prime's efforts, and he also deserves 
much credit for the excellent arrangements made for that great 
day among the old soldiers of Iowa, when the tattered remnants 
of their old flags were transferred to the capitol building, there 
to remain, as constant reminders of the dangers and privations, 
the heroism and the glorious victories of the civil war. 

The excellent status of law and order which was maintained 
throughout the state during the industrial depression and dis- 
turbances of the year 1894 ^^'^s in a great measure due to the vig- 
ilance and cool-headedness of Adjutant General Prime. He met 
every emergency with a firm hand, and so directed the disposition 
of his troops that every outburst of lawlessness was checked in its 
incipiency. 

MRS. LAURA C. CREIGHTON, STATE LIBRARTAX.— 

Laura C. Creighton, nee Hudson, was born August i, 1850, near 

Hazelwood. W^ebster county, Alissouri. Her 

father, Alexander AIcFarland Hudson, was a 

staunch Union man, though living in a slave 
state. Busy with an extensive law practice, 
he edited a paper at Lebanon advocating the 
^^ H election of Lincoln. During the early years 

'j*:- ^ of the war he rendered valuable assistance to 

''^■L^^. the Union forces in guiding them through 

y^TT— ^. his part of the state. His life was cut short 

by an assassin in 1863. During his lifetime 
he was the trusted friend and correspondent 
of the leaders of the Republican party, in- 
cluding Lincoln. Mrs. Hudson, before her 
marriage, was Sarah J. Young, and came 
from a noted ^Mississippi family. She was of a very energetic 
nature and her efforts secured for her daughter an excellent educa- 
tion. Before she was 16 years of age Mrs. Creighton became 
anxious to do something and accepted the office of postmis- 
tress at Lebanon, being the first woman in the state to hold such a 
position. She was married in 1868 to Colonel James H. Creigh- 
ton, then prosecuting attorney for the Fourteenth Judicial district. 
They went to live at Springfield, Missouri. Seven children were 
born to them, of whom four are still living. They are Abilena, 
Harold S., Hugh McMahon, and James Edwin. In 1878 the 
parents decided they would like to raise their family amid north- 
ern surroundings, so they moved to Indianola, Iowa, remaining 
there till their removal to Des Moines in 1891. ^Irs. Creighton 
has been prominently identified with the Woman's Relief Corps 
of Iowa almost from the time of its organization. She has been 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 



25 



a delegate to the national conventions, state and national aid, 
member of the state executive council and department treasurer 
for two years. In all these positions she has won the highest 
esteem of all with whom she has been associated. She was ap- 
pointed state librarian in 1894 by Governor Jackson at the request 
of numerous friends among the members of the G. A. R. from 
all parts of the state. In the administration of the duties of the 
office she has shown rare executive and financial ability, uniform 
courtesy to all who have had occasion to make use of the library, 
and has shown herself abundantly capable of managing well the 
affairs entrusted to her. She is an embodiment of energy, push, 
perseverance, and industry, a splendid example of woman's abil- 
ity to succeed. 




HON. W. E. O'BLENESS, COMMISSIONER OE LABOR 
STATISTICS. — Eor the past two years the condition of the labor- 
ing people of the state has been looked into 
by W. E. O'Bleness. He is a native of Polk 
county, having been born near Des Moines 
October 23, 1861. He has always lived in 
Des Moines. After finishing the common 
school course he learned the printing busi- 
ness. He worked at his trade steadily up to 
the time of his appointment to the office 
which he now holds. On taking up the 
work of labor commissioner he found noth- 
ing in the office which would give him any 
idea as to how the work should be done. 
Without any delay he inaugurated a system 
of his own, taking counsel at the same time 
with the leading labor union men of the city of Des Moines. As 
a result he has been enabled to gather and compile for the use 
of the people of the state a great deal of valuable information con- 
cerning the working people and their conditions of living, wages, 
etc. In order to bring the work nearer the people he has estab- 
lished the Bulletin, which once a month reports what has been 
done by his office. It is his desire to see the commissioner clothed 
with more power in order that the office may accomplish more 
of the work expected of it by the Legislature and the people. Mr. 
O'Bleness is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America 
and of the A. O. U. W. He was married about eight years ago 
to Miss Ida ]McKitrick. They have two children, George, aged 
4, and Charles, aged 2. 



IOWA HISTORICAL DEPARTMENT. 



As now organized, this department dates from the first day of 
July. 1892. Its chief purpose is the collection of historical data 
relating to the state and the vast territory of which it originally 
formed a part. So far as literature is concerned, special efforts 
are being made to collect Iowa newspapers from the earliest dates 
to the present time — works of state and general western and na- 
tional history, works on the slavery question and the war for the 
Union, histories of all our wars from the earliest times, reports 
upon the census of both state and nation, works relating to the 
North American Indians, county histories, directories of cities 
and towns, early and later maps, Iowa pamphlets, biographies 
of our notable men and women, printed or in manuscript, written 
or printed docunients relating to early settlers and settlements, 
reports, catalogues, circulars and broadsides relating to the 
churches, educational and benevolent institutions of the state — 
ni short, every species of data which can throw light upon local, 
state or western history. The department publishes "The Annals 
of Iowa," a quarterly historical magazine of eighty to one hundred 
pages, which entered upon its third year with the number for 
April, 1895. This is made up of original contributions in history 
and biography. By direction of the trustees it is sent to every 
organized library in our state. Its price to subscribers is $1 per 
year. Considerable collection of museum materials, military relics 
and mementos, specimens in archaeology, geology, mineralogy 
and natural history has been made and placed upon exhibition. 
The department has secured eighteen fine oil portraits of dis- 
tinguished lowans, most of which have been placed in other rooms 
of the capitol. As works of art many of these rank very high. 
The Historical Department is supported by a permanent appro- 
priation of $6,000 per annum. 

Up to November i, 1895, the collection of the department in- 
cluded the following: 

Bound volumes of Iowa newspapers, 1,348; Iowa newspapers 
coming to the department, 240; total number of books in the 
library, 3,094; total number of pamphlets in the library, 2,326. 

Also a large collection of autographs, manuscripts, and por- 
traits of notable people of all parts of the world. 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 



27 




CHARLES ALDRICH, CURATOR.— Was born in Chautau- 
qua county, New York, October 2, 1828, and came to Iowa in 
1857. He is well known throughout the state 
as a journalist, having been engaged in edi- 
torial work on a number of prominent and 
leading newspapers, and the proprietor of 
several. He 'has held various responsible 
public positions in the state, serving as chief 
clerk of the Iowa House of Representatives 
in i860, 1862, 1866 and 1870. He was Rep- 
resentative from Hamilton county in the 
General Assembly in 1882-4. Among other 
civil offices which he has held was that of Des 
Moines river land commissioner, 1872-3, 
under state authority, and under federal 
authority by appointment of President Grant, 
1874-6. Mr. Aldrich, first and last, has either been the author or 
originator of several important measures which have found a per- 
manent place upon the statute books of our state. Among these 
were the laws for the publication in the county newspapers of the 
statutes, sheriffs' sales, proceedings of boards of supervisors; for 
the change of county government, in i860; for the protection of 
the birds, in 1870; and several other measures of importance. He 
also secured the passage by the f louse in 1882, of a bill establish- 
ing a State Board of Pardons, but it failed in the Senate. He 
was sent by Governor Carpenter to Washington to aid in procur- 
ing legislation in behalf of the settlers on the Des Moines river 
land. During the war he was adjutant of the 32nd Iowa Infantry, 
1862-4. He was the first secretary of the Pioneer Law-Makers' 
Association of Iowa, and rendered efficient service in its organiza- 
tion. His greatest service, however, and that by which he will be 
best known in the future, is the service which he has rendered to 
Iowa as the founder of the "Aldrich Collection," now in the library 
rooms of the state capitol at Des Moines. This collection consists, 
of autograph letters, manuscripts, portraits and Iowa historical 
data. The Twenty-third General Assembly recognized the value 
and importance of his work by appropriating $3,000 to continue 
and enlarge the work, and to collect and preserve historical data 
in connection therewith. To Mr. Aldrich has been assigned spe- 
cial charge of this matter. 



THE SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' 
MONUMENT. 

Iowa's lasting tribute to the memory of the heroes of the late 
war is to be seen near the state capitol building. It is located 
upon the ground made historic by the first capitol building in 
Des Moines. In that building were held the sessions of the Gen- 
eral Assemblies during war times. The idea of such a memorial 
was discussed long before any definite move was made to secure 
its construction. The discussion resulted in the enactment by the 
Twenty-first General Assembly of a law creating a commission to 
look into the matter and determine on a plan for an appropriate 
memorial. 

The commission consisted of Governor Larrabce, Hon. D. N. 
Richardson, Hon. George G. Wright, Hon. S. J. Kirkwood, Hon. 
James Harlan and Hon. H. H. Trimble. The commission was 
subsequently enlarged by the Twenty-second General Assembly, 
and Hon. E. Townsend and Hon. L. E. Mitchell were added. By 
the death of Hon. S. J. Kirkwood and the resignation of Hon. 
George G. Wright two vacancies were created. These were filled 
by the appointment of Hon. C. H. Gatch and Mrs. Cora C. Weed. 

During the administration of Governor Boies the plans for the 
monument and its constructon were completed. Hon. D. N. 
Richardson, as secretary of the commission, devoted a great deal 
of time to the work. He had made a study of memorials in all 
parts of the world, and had an ambition to make the Iowa monu- 
ment a fitting one in all respects. The Twenty-fourth General 
Assembly set the stamp of approval on the plans adopted by ap- 
propriating $100,000 for the work. At the same time it ordered 
the monument to be located on the site of the old capitol building, 
giving the commission power to purchase more ground if it was 
deemed necessary. When the session was concluded there was a 
storm of objections raised, by citizens of Des Moines and other 
parts of the state, to the site, and partly in deference to these the 
preliminary work was not commenced. The plans were fully per- 
fected and all arrangements made for a start as soon as the 
Twenty-fifth General Assembly should hear the objections and 
take action thereon. The decision was a reiteration of the posi- 
tion taken by the Twenty-fourth, so nothing was left but to begin 
work. The contract was let to Messrs. Strieker & Rodler for 
architectural work, and to Carl Rohl-Smith for art work. The 



30 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

nionunient is l:)uilt of \^ermont granite. It is surmounted by a 
bronze figure of "X'ictory," 22 feet in height, modeled by Rohl- 
Smith. Tlie dimensions of the monument are as follows: Area of 
base, 6o.\6o feet; height of shaft, including steps to base of bronze 
figure, 113 feet; diameter of shaft at base, 13 feet; diameter of 
shaft at base of capstone, 9 feet; diameter of capstone, 13! feet; 
depth of foundations, 8 feet; total height of monument from 
ground to highest point of bronze figure, 135 feet. The work of 
construction was begun in June, 1894, ^^ic^ it is expected to be 
completed November i, 1896. 

The faces of Iowa soldiers will be seen in bronze relief on the 
base of the monument, where they can be examined by all. It 
has been a difftcult matter to make the selections, and as the list 
has not yet been completed it cannot be given. 



IOWA MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. 



SEXATOR W. r,. ALLISOX.— The senior United States Sen- 
ator from Iowa is a man well known all over the country. Mr. 
Allison has been in Congress almost constantly since 1861, most 
of the time in the Senate. He was born in Perry, Ohio. March 2, 
1829, and was educated at Western Reserve College. Afterward 
he studied law and for a time practiced in Ohio. Coming west 
he located at Dubu(|ue, which has been h:s home since 1857. 
During war times he was busv recruiting volunteers. In the midst 
of this work he was elected to the House of Representatives. He 
served in the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth and Forty-first 
Congresses. In 1872 he was elected United States Senator to 
succeed James Harlan, the contest for the Republican nomination 
being long and memorable. Mr. x\llison has since been re-elected 
four times, and \\ill again be the choice of the Legislature this 
winter. In the .Senate during Republican supremacy he has 
always been cliairman of the conmiittee on appropriations. Fie 
has devoted himself especially to the financial questions discussed 
and acted upon in Congress. By reason of his long service and 
thorough investigations in this line he has accumulated a fund of 
information that makes him an authority. Iowa people think no 
honor is too high for him. They will present his name to the 
next Republican national convention, and hope to see him nom- 
inated for president. 

SENATOR JOHN H. GEAR.— -Old Business"' is one of the 
most frequent sobriquets applied to the Hon. John H. Gear. He 
was born at Ithaca, New York, April 7, 1825. He received a 
common-school education, after which his parents removed to 
Galena, Illinois; two years later to Fort Snelling, Iowa, and in 
1843 ^le settled at Burlington. Here he entered into the g^rocery 
business which he continued for many years. In 1863 he was 
chosen mayor of Burlington. Des Aloines county elected him 
to the Fourteenth, Mfteenth and Sixteenth General Assembly. 
He was speaker of the Fifteenth General Assembly, hav- 
ing been elected as a compromise candidate after a long dead- 
lock. He was also speaker of the Sixteenth General Assembly, 
having the distinction of being the only man who has ever 
been chosen speaker twice of the General Assembly. In 1877 
he was elected governor, holding the office for two terms, 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896./ 33 

retiring to private life in 1882. In 1886 a suitable candidate was 
sought by the Republicans of the First District to run for Con- 
gress and Mr. Gear was placed in nomination. He was elected 
member of the Fiftieth Congress, defeating Hon. Benton J. Hall, 
Democratic nominee by over one thousand votes. In 1887 he 
was again elected a member of the Fifty-first Congress, defeating 
Hon. I. J. Seerley. In this Congress Mr. Gear was a member of 
the ways and means committee, and was active in forming the tar- 
iff act of 1890. He was the only member of that committee be- 
tween the Mississippi river and the Pacific ocean. He attained 
great reputation in the fact that he was conceded to be the author 
of the "free sugar" clause of the ]\lcKinley bill. In 1890 he was 
defeated by Hon. J. J. Seerley; this was owing to the Democratic 
landslide which swept over everybody that year. In 1892 he was 
again elected to the Fifty-third Congress, defeating Hon. J. J. 
Seerley. In this Congress he was again a member of the ways 
and means committee and did good service for the Republican 
party in his opposition to the Wilson bill. During the closing- 
months of Mr. Harrison's administration he was appointed assist- 
ant secretary of the interior. Air. Gear is one of the RepubHcan 
leaders in the state. He has always been faithful to the party 
and has done excellent service. In 1894 he was elected United 
States Senator after a hot fight in which the strongest political 
men of the state contended. He took his seat March 4, 1895, and 
will enter on his Senatorial duties at the opening of the December 
session of the Fifty-fourth Congress. Mr. Gear is married and 
has two daughters living. They are: Mrs. J. W. Blythe, wife of 
the general solicitor of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Rail- 
road, and Mrs. Horace S. Rand, of Burlington. In his home, Mr. 
Gear and family are highly respected, and Burlington people think 
no honor is too high for him. 

HON. S. M. CLARK. — The First Iowa Congressional district 
is to be represented by a newspaper man this time. Hon. S. M. 
Clark, of the Gate City, was elected in 1894. and his term of office 
began March 4 of this year. He was born in Van Buren county 
in 1843, ai^d spent his boyhood there. He came to Keokuk as a 
young man, studied law with John W. Rankin and George W. 
McCrary, and in 1864 began newspaper work in the Gate City. 
Ever since then he has lived in Keokuk. He has done a great deal 
of work for the Republican party, always supporting its candi- 
dates in a county overwhelmingly Democratic for years. During 
the administration of President Garfield he was appointed post- 
master. When John H. Gear was elected to the United States 
.Senate the Republicans of Lee county determined that Mr. Clark 
was the man to go to Congress, and from that dav a livelv cam- 
paign was inaugurated. It culminated in his nomination at Mt. 
Pleasant in June of last year, and his triumphant election in Xo- 



34 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

vember. ]\Ir. Clark is a widower and has one son, Arthur V. 
Clark, one of the managers of the "U'izard of the Nile" opera com- 
pany. 

HON. GEORGE M. CURTIS.— For a long- time the Second 
Congressional district of Iowa has been represented by a Demo- 
crat. The man to break this order of things was the Hon. George 
M. Curtis, of Clinton, who was elected last year. He was born 
in Oxford, Chemung count} , New York. April i, 1844. The fam- 
ily moved to Rochelle. Illinois, in 1856, and there lived on a 
farm. George attended the local schools and afterward went to 
Mount IMorris Seminary. At the age of 17 he took up school 
teaching and followed the profession for a few years. In 1867 he 
went to Clinton and there entered upon the business of manu- 
facturing doors and blinds along with his brother, C. F. Curtis. 
They have built up an immense business in this line. Mr. Curtis 
was married September 4, 1872, to JMiss Ettie Lewis. They have 
two children: George Lewis, aged 17, and Eugene J., aged 11. 
He is a ]\Iason of the thirty-third degree, and belongs to the 
Knights of Pythias. He was a member of the House of the 
Twenty-second General Assembly from Clinton county. In 1894 
it was the ambition of the Republicans to make the Iowa delega- 
tion in Congress solidly Republican. The Second district was 
considered the hardest to carry and the strongest man was 
selected to make the run. Mr. Curtis was the man, and he won 
handsomely, receiving a plurality of 436 votes in a district that two 
years before was Democratic by a majority of 6,961. 

HON. D. B. HENDERSON.— David B. Henderson, Con- 
gressman from the Third Iowa district, was born at Old Deer, 
Scotland, March 14, 1840. He came to the United States with 
his parents in 1846, settling on a farm in Winnebago county, Illi- 
nois. They moved to Iowa in 1849. opening up a new farm on land 
bought from the government, in Fayette county. His education 
was in the common schools at home and at the Upper Iowa Uni- 
versity, which school conferred upon him the honorary degree of 
LL. D., in 1895. He remained on the farm with his parents until 
the war broke out, when, in September, 1861, he enlisted as a 
private in Company C, 12th Iowa Infantry Volunteers, but was 
at once elected first lieutenant. He was wounded severely in the 
throat at the charge of Fort Donelson, and afterward lost a leg at 
the battle of Corinth. After recovery he was appointed commis- 
sioner of the board of enrollment, but in 1864 resigned that office 
to re-enter the army as colonel of the 46th Iowa Infantr}', serving 
out his term. At the close of the war he entered the law office of 
Bissell & Shiras, at Dubuque. He was admitted in October, 1865. 
He was appointed collector of internal revenue Third district of 
Iowa, November, 1865. He resigned that office to enter upon 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 35, 

the practice of the law as a member of the firm of Shiras, Van 
Duzee & Henderson, in 1869. He was assistant United States 
district attorney for two years, resigning in 1871. He has twice 
been permanent chairman of Repubhcan state conventions, and in 
1880 and 1888 was delegate-at-large to the RepnbHcan national 
convention, and each time was selected chairman of the Iowa dele- 
gation. He was elected to Congress Third district of Iowa in 
1882, and has been unanimously renominated six times and 
elected. Colonel Henderson is one of the most popular men in 
the Republican ranks in Iowa. He has the happy faculty of being 
able to highly interest an audience while talking tO' the people. In 
Congress he has established a reputation for himself as a rough 
and ready debater, always prepared for a fray and delighting in 
extempore discussion on the floor. The Third Iowa district is a 
hard one to hold in line for the Republican party, but Hender- 
son has been found to be a man who can do it. 

HON. THOMAS UPDEGRAFF.— The Fourth Iowa Con- 
gressional district is represented by the Hon. Thomas Updegraff 
of McGregor. He was born in Tioga county, Pennsylvania, April 
3, 1834. He received an academic education and came west when 
a young man. He was made clerk of the district court of Clayton 
county in 1856 and held the office four years. In 1861 he was ad- 
mitted to the bar and has since practiced that profession. In 1878 
he was a member of the Iowa House of Representatives. At Mc- 
Gregor he has served on the school board and as city solicitor for 
many years. In 1888 he was a delegate to the Republican national 
convention and was a member of the notification committee. He 
was first elected to Congress in 1878, and again in 1880. In 1892 
and 1894 he was again nominated by the Republicans and elected. 
He is one of the strongest men in the party in Northeastern Iowa. 

HON. ROBERT G. COUSINS.— The Fifth Iowa district went 
Republican in 1892 and sent Hon. Robert G. Cousins to Congress. 
He enjoys the distinction of being the youngest member of the 
delegation and the only one who was born and raised in the dis- 
trict from which he was elected. Mr. Cousins' parents moved to 
Cedar county in an early day of Iowa's history. Robert was born 
in 1859. He was sent to the schools near his home and as soon as 
old enough went to Cornell College at Mt. Vernon, Iowa, where 
he graduated. After finishing school he devoted himself to the 
law, gaining admission to the bar in 1882. Since then he has 
been in active practice, his home being at Tipton. In 1885 ]\Ir. 
Cousins was elected to the Twenty-first General Assembly. Fie 
was the youngest member of that body. When the House im- 
peached Auditor Brown Mr. Cousins was elected one of the prose- 
cutors on the part of the House. Returning to Tipton he was made 
county attorney. The Republicans put him up for presidential 



36 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 

elector in 1888, and he had the pleasure of casting- an electoral vote 
for Harrison. In 1892 he was placed in the field for Congressman 
and elected. His first appearance in Washington as a member of 
the House was at the extra session in 1893. He came to the 
front in the fight against the repeal of the federal election laws, 
making a strong half-hour speech in opposition to the bill. In 
that speech he gave utterance to the key note of his policy always 
on the matter of elections when he said: "Every ballot box from 
Maine to California should be as sacred as a virgin's virtue." Dur- 
ing his first term in Congress he was invited to represent the state 
of Iowa at the annual Home Market club meeting of Boston 
and spoke with Reed and McKinley to an audience of 7,000 peo- 
ple in ^lechanics" hall. He was then invited to return to Boston in 
F'ebruary, 1894, and spoke at the Lincoln anniversary for the 
Middlesex club. In February. 1895, he spoke on "The Nation" 
in Chicago at the ^larquette club banquet, and in April, 1895, he 
made the annual address for the Grant Banquet Association in 
New York City. Mr. Cousins is now serving his second term in 
Congress, having been re-elected in 1894. 

HON. J. A. T. HULL. — The Iowa mem1:)er from the Seventh 
district, the Hon. J. A. T. Hull, was born in Sabina, Clinton coun- 
ty. Ohio, Alay i. 1841. He moved to Iowa witli his parents in 
1849. settling at Bloomfield. He attended the common schools. 
Asbury, Indiana. University. Iowa Wesleyan University at Mt. 
Pleasant, and completed his schooling with a course at the Cincin- 
nati Law School, finishing in ]une, 1862. Fresh from the class 
room he entered the army, enlisting in the 23d Iowa Infantry in 
July. 1862. He held the position of first lieutenant and captain. 
May 17, 1863. he was wounded in a charge on the intrenchments 
at Black River. This necessitated his resignation in October of 
the same year. In private life at Bloomfield, ^Ir. Hull owned and 
edited the Davis County Republican. In 1871 he was elected sec- 
retary of the Iowa State Senate, which position he filled for four 
successive terms. From there he stepped into the ofifice of sec- 
retary of state for three terms. In the meantime he removed to 
Des ]\Ioines and took up his permanent residence in the capital 
city. When the Republican state convention met in 1884 to select 
a candidate for governor the leading men were Larrabee and 
Hull. An arrangement was made whereby Larrabee was given 
first place and Hull second, the understanding of the public being 
that Hull was to be advanced to governor at the conclusion of 
Larrabee's two terms. It was a memorable convention held four 
years later when Hull. Wheeler and Hutchison were the leading 
men. The preliminary fight had been so hot between Wheeler 
and Hull's friends that in convention they would not give an inch, 
so after a prolonged deadlock the honors went to Hutchison. Next 
year ^Nfr. Conger resigned to go to Brazil as minister and the Sev- 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 37 

enth district turned tO' Mr. Hull and gave him the nomination. He 
was elected in 1890, receiving- a clear majority of all the votes cast 
in the district and again in 1892 and 1894 by increased majori- 
ties. His service in the House has been very satisfactory to his 
constituency. Mr. Hull is married and has three children. He is 
president of the Iowa Central Building and Loan Association and 
is interested in a number of enterprises in Des Moines. 

HON. JOHN F. LACEY.— John F. Lacey is now represent- 
ing the Sixth district in Congress. He is a native of West Vir- 
ginia, but has lived in Iowa for forty years. He served through 
the war, enlisting twice as a private soldier, first in May, 1861, 
in the 3d Iowa Infantry, and again in the 33d Iowa. He 
rose to the position of assistant adjutant general and served 
on the staff of General S. A. Rice, and after that gallant officer was 
killed in battle served on the staff of General Steele. He served in 
the Iowa Legislature in 1870, but afterward up to 1888 held no 
office of importance. He was nominated that year for Con- 
gress. The campaign that followed was a memorable one and at- 
tracted national attention. Major Lacey and General Weaver 
held joint discussions through the district and the major had an 
excellent test of his capacity in meeting that veteran and skillful 
campaigner. General Weaver had secured the fusion nomina- 
tion, but was defeated by 828 majority, the first Republican vic- 
tory in the district in several years. In 1890 Major Lacey was 
renominated, but went down in the general Democratic landslide. 
Notwithstanding the tremendous change of that year all over the 
country the Sixth district went Democratic by only 520. In 1892 
be was again nominated and after a thorough campaign was 
elected by 1,175 over his former opponent, Mr. White. He was 
again nominated and elected in 1894 by a plurality of 6,738. 
Major Lacey is an author well known to the bar of the whole 
■country. His Railway Digest is a complete encyclopedia of rail- 
way law and is constantly used by the bar generally throughout 
the Union. 

HON. W. P. HEPBURN.— A gallant soldier, a good lawyer, a 
clean politician and a splendid public officer is Colonel W. P. 
Hepburn, Congressman from the Eighth Iowa district. He was 
born in Columbiana county, Ohio, November 4, 1833. ^^ lost 
bis father early and when his mother married George S. Hamp- 
ton the family moved to Iowa City, Iowa, and took up their resi- 
dence on a farm. Mr. Hepburn attended the schools of his neigh- 
iDorhood and worked at printing for four years. Later he read law 
at Iowa City and Chicago, being admitted to the Illinois bar in 
1854. Returning to Iowa in 1855 he married Miss Melvina A. 
Morsman. Early in 1856 they moved to Marshalltown. In 1858 
be was elected district attorney for the Eleventh Judicial district. 



38 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

which position he resigned in 1861 to enter the army. Elected cap- 
tain of a company he organized, he was attached to the 2d Iowa 
Cavalrv and the following February went to the front. Air. Hep- 
burn was soon advanced to the rank of major and in that position 
earned distinction at Corinth. Not long after he was placed on 
the stafif of General Sheridan, then attached to General Rosecrans. 
In December of that same year, 1862, he was made lieutenant- 
colonel and placed in command of the Second Brigade, Cavalry 
Division. i6th Army Corps, where he served till he went north 
on a veteran furlough. On returning he was placed in command 
of a cavalry regiment, mustered out in October, 1864, at the close 
of his enlistment, but he entered the army again and till the close 
remained in command of a regiment of provisional cavalry. In 
1876 Colonel Hepburn moved to Clarinda, Iowa, which has since 
been his home. He was elected to Congress in 1880 and twice 
successively thereafter. During the Harrison administration he 
was solicitor of the treasury, which position lie resigned Alarch 4, 
i8<j3. to again enter Congress for his old district. 

HOX. A. L. HAGER.— The Ninth Iowa district has for its 
member of Congress the Hon. A. L. Hager, of Greenfield, Adair 
county. He was born in Jamestown, New York, October 29, 
1850, and for nine years was a resident of that state. He then 
came to Iowa and after a proper course of training, including two 
years at the State University, entered upon the practice of law at 
Greenfield. He advanced in his profession and in 1891 was 
elected to the Iowa Senate from the district composed of Adair 
and Aladison counties. He was a forcible speaker on the floor and 
attracted a great deal of attention. When it came time to select a 
nominee for Congress the Reublicans of the Ninth district decided 
he would be the best man and placed him in the field. He was 
easily elected. His first Congressional experience was in the extra 
session of August, 1893. He worked and voted against the bill re- 
l^ealing the silver purchasing clause of the Sherman law, thus 
showing his friendliness to silver. He was elected for the second 
time in 1894. *■ 

HON. JONATHAN P. DOLLIVER.— One of the youngest 
members of the Iowa Congressional delegation is Jonathan P. 
Dolliver. who hails from Fort Dodge. He was born on a farm near 
Kingwood, West Virginia, February 6, 1858, and is therefore 37 
years of age. After going through the common schools he at- 
tended the University of West Virginia and took a law course. 
Just as many other young men have done he came west to make 
iiis fortune. Fort Dodge, Iowa, was selected as his place of resi- 
dence and there he has remained. Closely attending to business 
and at the same time watching public affairs with a critical mind 
he formed expressed opinions which brought him into promi- 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 39 

nence in Fort Dodge. He was an influential speaker, inheriting 
oratorical powers from his Methodist preacher father. Not seek- 
ing any political preferment for himself he attended the Repub- 
lican conventions, and in 1884 was sent to Des Moines on the 
Webster county delegation to the Republican state convention. 
Here he made the hit of his life. Being chosen temporary chair- 
man of the convention he delivered a speech which electrified the 
audience and surprised them with his brilliancy. In a very few 
days Dolliver's name was known all over the state and in the sub- 
secjuent campaign he was in demand everywhere. Since that 
time he has been a prominent man among the Iowa Republicans. 
He tried for the Republican nomination for Congressman in the 
Tenth district, in 1886, but Major Holmes carried off the prize. 
Two years later, however, the young man was nominatecl and 
triumphantly elected. He is now serving his fourth term. In the 
House he attracted attention from the start by his wonderful ora- 
torical powers, and he still holds a high rank there. Mr. Dolliver 
belongs to two secret orders, the Knights of Pythias and Masons. 
Personally he is one of those young men who readily make friends 
and by strict observance of all that characterizes a true man he 
keeps his friends loyal always. Mr. Dolliver was married No- 
vember 20 to Miss Louise Pearsons of Fort Dodge. 

HON. GEORGE D. PERKINS.— The Eleventh Congress- 
ional district of Iowa is represented by Hon. George D. Perkins of 
Sioux City. He was born in Holly, Orleans county. New York, 
February 29, 1840, removed at an early age to the west and 
learned the printer's trade at Baraboo, Wisconsin. In connec- 
tion with his brother he started the Cedar Falls Gazette early in 
i860. He enlisted as a private soldier in Company B, 31st Iowa, 
August 12, 1862, and was discharged at Jefferson Barracks, Mis- 
souri, January 12, 1863. He was a member of the Iowa Senate 
in 1874 and 1876, was appointed United States marshal for the 
northern district of Iowa by President Arthur and removed by 
President Cleveland. He was first elected to the Fifty-first Con- 
gress, and re-elected to the Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth. Mr. Per- 
kins is one of the proprietors of the Sioux City Journal, a news- 
paper that is without a peer in Iowa. 



STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE 
CHAIRMEN. 




HOX. H. (i. M'MILLAX.— The leader of the RepubHcan 
forces during the campaign just closed was the Hon. H. G. Mc- 
Millan of Rock Rapids, a man who has made 
his own way in the world thus far and who 

rhas shown the faculty of being successful in 
'"■ *- I whatever he has undertaken. He was born 
in Wayne county, Ohio, May 29, 1854, came 
to Washington county, Iowa, in 1857, and in 
1882 moved to his present home. At Wash- 
ington he attended the common schools, sup- 
plementing the knowledge gained there by a 
I'JHPI^HHj course at Washington Academy. Turning 
\'- ^\9Bp^ ^^'^ attention to the legal profession, he be- 

gan reading law in the ofihce of J. F. ^Ic- 
Junkin, attorney general of the state. Dur- 
ing this time he boarded at home, walking 
four miles l)ack and forth each day. He was finally admitted to 
the bar and began to practice. His willingness to assist friends 
involved him in financial difficulties at a rather early date. He 
endorsed paper for friends, and in 1882 found himself in debt 
$4,000. Relieving that his fortunes would be more cpiickly re- 
trieved in a new section of country he removed to Lyon county 
and resumed his law' practice. He was successful from the start. 
15y making judicious investments of his earnings he v.'as enabled 
not only to pay off all indebtedness but to gain a competence now 
estimated in the neighborhood of $100,000. He was married 
about twenty years ago to Miss Alice Van Doren. They have 
five children, Glenn, aged 17; Viva, aged 15; Florence, aged 11 ; 
James B., aged 9, and Horace G., Jr., aged 7. Mr. McMillan has 
held the offtce of city attorney of Rock Rapids and county attorney 
for Lyon county. He has always been a Republican. He is a 
member of the Knights of Pythias, and attends the Congrega- 
tional church. Mr. MclNIillan is an essentially self-made man. 
and whatever success he has had in life has been due entirely to 
his own efforts. 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 



41 




SENATOR C. S. RANCK.— At the head of the Democratic 
state central committee during the late campaign was the Hon. 
C. S. Ranck, of Iowa City. He had the difH- 
cult position to fill of conducting the state 
campaign and his own canvass for the post 
^m^\ of Senator from the Iowa-Johnson district. 

Jj^^^ \ He is not a new man in politics. He has 

^ " " represented Johnson county three times in 

the House. Born in Union county, Penn- 
sylvania, in 1847, ^^e came to Marshall 
county, Iowa, ten years later. From there 
he went to Hancock county, Illinois, where 
his mother now resides. He attended school 
till 17 years of age. In 1864 he came to Bur- 
lington, Iowa, and for four years was a stu- 
dent in the Baptist College. After teaching 
school for a year at Dallas, Illinois, he went tO' the State University 
at Iowa City and entered the lav,- class. Since then he has resided 
in Iowa City. He was city solicitor for four years. In 1883 and 
1885 he was elected to the House of the Twentieth and Twenty- 
first General Assemblies and was by no means inconspicuous. In 
the Twenty-first General Assembly he was a member of the com- 
mittee to investigate the charges against Auditor Brown, which 
investigation resulted in an impeachment trial for Mr. Brown. 
He has for several years been a member of the board of trustees 
of the Iowa School for the Deaf at Council Blufifs, being elected 
to the position by the Legislature. He has served as county 
attorney of Johnson county for six years. Mr. Ranck is a mem- 
ber of the A/Iasonic fraternity. He stands well with his party in 
the state and is always found ready to fight hard for its success. 
Two years ago in the House he was a member of the committees 
on judiciary, railroads and commerce, federal relations, private 
corporations, public libraries, congressional districts, rules. He 
was also a micmber of the special committee to decide the election 
contest from Jackson county. 



THE TWENTY-SIXTH GENERAL 
ASSEMBLY. 



The session of the Twenty-sixth General Assembly of Iowa will 
begin at lo o'clock in the morning of January 14. 1896. the law 
providing the time of the opening of the session at 10 o'clock in 
the morning of the second Alonday in the month of January' every 
two years. The General Assembly of Iowa is composed of two 
branches, the House and the Senate. In the former are one hun- 
dred members called Representatives, elected from ninety-one 
Representative districts. In the Senate are fifty Senators elected 
from fifty Senatorial districts. The lieutenant governor is the 
presiding officer in the Senate. The House elects a speaker to 
preside over its deliberations. The pay of the members of the 
House and Senate is $550 and mileage at the rate of five cents per 
mile from place of residence to Des Moines and return. The pre- 
siding oflicer in each branch of the General Assembly receives 
double the pay of the other members. Tlie presiding officer in 
each branch appoints the standing committees to serve during the 
session, the first named in the list as announced being known as 
the chairman. 

In the Senate the officers elected are secretary, with a salary^ of 
$7 a day for tlie session and $500 for compiling and superintend- 
ing the printing of the journal at the close; first and second assist- 
ant secretaries, salaries $6 a day each for the session; engrossing 
and enrolling clerks, salaries $5 a day each; two journal clerks, 
salaries $5 a day each; bill clerk, file clerk, postmistress, salaries 
$4 a day each; eight pages, salaries $2 a day each; sergeant-at- 
arms, chief doorkeeper, salaries $6 a day each ; eight assistant 
doorkeepers, salaries $4 a day each; four janitors, salaries $4 a 
day each. The appointive officials are lieutenant governor's sec- 
retary, salarv^ $4 a day; thirty-nine clerks of standing committees, 
salaries $3 a day each ; two paper folders, salaries $2.50 a day 
each. The appointment of the lieutenant governor's private sec- 
retary is in the hands of the lieutenant governor, as is also the 
appointment of the paper folders. The committee clerks are ap- 
pointed by the chairmen of the committees. 

In the House the chief clerical officer is called the chief clerk. 
He has the same salary as the secretary of the Senate. The other 
officials are about the same as in the Senate, the exceptions being 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 43 

that heretofore only one journal clerk has been emplo}^ed, and 
the committee clerks sometimes have more than one committee 
to care for. There are forty-six standing committees in the 
House. 

The session of the Twenty-sixth General Assembly of Iowa will 
be one of a great deal more than ordinary importance. During 
the past two years a commission has been at work revising the 
code. The report will be presented to the Legislature, and as all 
the laws have been changed in some way by this report, it will 
require a long time to give it the consideration it deserves. Aside 
from this comes the cjuestion of regulating the Hquor traffic for 
final solution, as well as the election of a United States Senator 
to succeed the Hon. W. B. Allison. He will have no opposition 
among the Republican members of the General Assembly, and 
will be elected to succeed himself. The Democrats have seven 
votes in the Senate and twenty in the House, while the Republic- 
ans have forty-three in the Senate and eighty in the House. 

The liquor question will come up in three ways: Modification 
of the so-called mulct law enacted by the Twenty-fifth General 
Assembly; resubmission, and permitting manufacturing of intoxi- 
cating liquors in the state. It will require a majority of the mem- 
bers elected to both branches to effect any modification of the 
present mulct law, and it must be done entirely by Republican 
votes, unless a measure can be framed that will secure the support 
of the Democrats. They are all pledged to license. Hence not 
much modification is to be anticipated. 

Two years ago the Twenty-fifth General Assembly adopted the 
following joint resolution: 

■' 'Sec. 26. No person shall manufacture for sale, or sell or keep 
for sale as a beverage, any intoxicating liquors whatever, includ- 
ing ale, wine and beer.' 

"The General Assembly shall by law prescribe regulations for 
the enforcement of the prohibition herein contained, and shall 
thereby provide suitable penalties for the violation of the provis- 
ions hereof. 

"Resolved, further. That the foregoing proposed amendment be, 
and the same is hereby referred to the Legislature to be chosen at 
the next general election for members of the next General As- 
sembly, and that the secretary of state cause the same to be pub- 
lished for three months previous to the day of said election, as 
provided by law." 

This was the first step towards prohibition as a constitutional 
enactment. It is an amendment to the constitution of the state 
that is proposed. A similar amendment was adopted twelve 
years ago, but declared to have been unconstitutionally adopted 
by reason of a slight change of wording in passing through the 
General Assembly the second time. The process is that an 
amendment to the constitution must be passed by one Legisla- 



44 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 

ture, submitted to the next in identically the same language as it 
passed first, and if it receives the approval of a majority of the 
second Legislature it goes to the people for a direct vote. If the 
people approve, it then becomes a part of the constitution. This 
is the second time the question has advanced to the second stage. 

The members this winter must decide whether or no the reso- 
lution will go to the people for a direct vote. It was adopted in 
the last General Assembly under peculiar circumstances. The 
Republicans were very anxious to secure some modification of 
the prohibitory laws, but could not do so without making some 
concession to the members of the party who believed that prohibi- 
tion was the right thing. So it was agreed that if the measure 
now known as the mulct law was passed the opponents of prohibi- 
tion would give enough votes to pass a resubmission resolution in 
that session. The agreement was kept on both sides, but it was 
understood to apply only to the session of two years ago. The 
anti-prohibitionists who voted for the resolution then feel at lib- 
erty now to vote the other way. It is believed there are enough 
of them, with the help of the Democrats, who are opposed to 
prohibition, to defeat it in one or both branches. It will kill the 
measure to be defeated in one House. 

In my investigations concerning the members of the incoming 
General Assembly I have tried to ascertain how they would vote 
on the subject. Some have answered unecjuivocally, some have 
given their positions as a matter of private information, some 
have refused to make a statement one way or another, and a few- 
have not answered anything asked about themselves. All the 
Democrats can safely be counted against prohibition resubmis- 
sion and for the manufacture of liquors in the state. Knowing 
many of the members of the last General Assembly personally, 
understanding their positions, it is not a difficult matter to state 
where they are to be found this winter. As for the new members, 
their preferences are taken from their answers, from conversation 
w'ith people who know them and from a knowledge of the pre- 
ponderance of sentiment in the localities which have sent them 
here. 

Were it not for the fact that members confidentially gave 
the information concerning their preferences on this subject, the 
roll call would be given as it is believed it will be when the vote is 
finally taken. As it is. nothing more than the probable result 
can be indicated. Estimating on the information at hand, direct 
and indirect, it seems that resubmission will be defeated in both 
branches of the General Assembly, and a manufacturing bill 
passed. The vote is likely to stand as follows: 

Resubmission, House — F"or. 43; against. 57. Senate — For. 21 ; 
against, 29. 

Manufacturing. House — For, 52; against. 48. Senate — For, 
30; against, 20. 



THE SENATE. 



SENATOR J. S. ALEXANDER.— T. S. Alexander, of Ma- 
rion, Iowa, was born near Mt. Vernon, Linn county, Iowa, May 
21, 1842. During his boyhood he assisted his father on the farm 
in the summer and attended the district school in the winter. The 
years 1861 and 1862 found him a student in Cornell College. In 
the spring of the latter year he was tendered a clerkship in the 
pay department of the United States army, but believing his active 
services were more needed, he resigned his clerkship and enlisted 
as a private in Company A, 31st Iowa Infantry, August 16, 1862, 
for a term of three years, or during the war. He was soon pro- 
moted to sergeant major of the regiment, and on March 16, 1863, 
to be second lieutenant of the company, and on July 29, 1863, 
to the captaincy. He participated in all of the engagements of 
his company and regiment until the close of the war, his regiment 
being a part of the Iowa brigade of the 3d division, 15th army 
corps. Army of the Tennessee. At the close of the war he re- 
turned home for a short time, but in the fall of 1865 he moved to 
Marion, Iowa, and engaged in the lumber business, following 
the same until the summer of 1891. when he was elected cashier 
of the First National Bank of Marion, Iowa, which position he 
now holds. In all matters of interest to his town and county he 
takes an active part. He is independent in his opinion and always 
frank to express them. He is promifient in the Grand Army. 
Being one of the best known men in the county and in close 
touch with all classes of people, his electioii by a majority of 2,000 
as a Republican, would indicate the truth' of the assertion. Mr. 
Alexander is a member of the Presbyterian church, has a com- 
fortable home and enjoys the comforts of his home life with his 
wife and four children. 

SENATOR L. C. BLANCHARD.— Lucian C. Blanchard was 
born in the town of Diana, Lewis county. New York, April 15, 
1839. His father, Caleb Blanchard, was a farmer, but died when 
the subject of this sketch was only 5 years old. The son received 
a good common-school education, after which he attended Car- 
thage Academy, New York, for several terms, and in 1858 came 
to Illinois and entered Rock River Seminary. There he remained 
for several years. He enlisted in Company K. of the 28th Iowa 



46 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

Infantry, at Xewton, Iowa, and served in that regiment during' 
the war. Returning to resume the arts of peace, he entered the 
law department of the University of Michigan, from which he 
graduated in 1866. He immediately returned to Iowa and c^-^i- 
menced the practice of law at Montezuma. In the fall of 1868 he 
was elected circuit judge, and was re-elected in 1872 and again 
in 1876, serving three full terms or twelve years on the bench. 
He removed to Oskaloosa in 1874, and since his retirement from 
the bench has been engaged in the practice of law in that city. 
In 1886 he spent the summer traveling in Europe. In Masonic 
circles he stands high, having been treasurer of the grand lodge 
of Iowa in 1870-80. He was also grand orator of that body in 
1878. He is also a member of the G. A. R., and in 1890 was 
elected senior vice conunander of the Department of Iowa. As 
a member of the House two years ago he took an active part in all 
the important legislation of that body. He was largely instru- 
mental in having the law passed prohibiting the 80 per cent co- 
insurance clause in lire insurance policies. Mr. Blanchard served 
as chairman of the committee on federal relations, and was a mem- 
ber of the committees on ways and means, judiciary, appropria- 
tions, numicipal corporations, state university, elections, public 
libraries and judicial districts. His promotion to the Senate is 
well deserved. 

SEXATOR GEORGE S. ALLYN.— Ringgold' county had the 

honor last summer of naming the Republican candidate for the 

Senatorial district composed of Decatur, 

Ringgold and Union counties. The man 

successful before the convention and at the 

polls was the Hon. Geo. S. Allyn of Mt. Ayr. 

He is the son of a Methodist minister, and 

was born at Clinton, Illinois, March 9, 1847. 

While the father was alive he changed his 

residence according to the custom of itiner- 

. ,^ J- ,^^^^ acy prevailing in the Methodist church, so- 

vHL^j^^^V George received his schooling in the various 

^^^^^^^f towns where his father was stationed from 

^^1^^^ time to time. After the death of his father 

he took up teaching as a means of gaining a 

livelihood along with farming. He came to 

Ringgold county in 1866, and has made his home there ever since. 

In 1873 the Republicans elected him clerk of the district court. 

He held the place three terms, then was postmaster at Mt. Ayr 

during the Hayes administration. On retiring from the olifice 

he helped organize the Mt. Ayr bank. Since 1880 he has been 

cashier of that institution. Mr. Allyn was married about twenty 

years ago to Miss Mary A^. Kinsell. They have five children, 

Madge, aged 18; Earle K., 16; Clare G., 13; Clinton D., 9, and 




THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 



47 



Baby Georgie, i8 months. Mr. Allyn is a member of the Method- 
ist church. He is a practical man, does not Hke experimenting- 
too much in legislation, and wants to see the mulct law given a 
fair trial. 

SENATOR W. H. BERRY.— The Senatorial district com- 
posed of Clarke and Warren counties will be represented this 
winter by the Hon. W. H. Berry, of Indian- 
ola. He is a native of Illinois, having been 
born in Cass county, that state, October 23, 
^j|^^ 1849. He lived in Illinois till 18 years of 

^f^3- age, then came to Warren county, Iowa, 

■^ * where he has since resided. After finishing 

the common school course he studied in 
Simpson College at Indianola, graduating in 
1872. During the next year he applied him- 
self to the study of law with such application 
that he was admitted to the bar before the 
close of 1873. He at once began active 
practice, and has kept at it ever since. He 
was married in 1875 ^o Miss Alice M. Bar- 
ker. They have one son, Don L. Berry, 15 years of age. Mr. 
Berry has never been an aspirant for public office, and this is his 
first appearance as a servant of the people. But while he has not 
been after office, he has been a good worker in the ranks of the 
Republican party. He belongs to three secret orders, the Ma- 
sons, the Odd Fellows and the Ancient Order of United Work- 
men. He is a member of the Methodist church. 




SENATOR THOMAS BELL.— The counties of Jefiferson and 
A^an Buren alternate in the selection of a Senator from that dis- 
trict. This time the honor falls on the Hon. 
Thomas Bell of Fairfield to represent the 
district in the Senate for the next four years. 
He was born in the city of Philadelphia April 
5, 1838; lived in Philadelphia five years and 
in Pittsburg and Allegheny nine years. He 
received his schooling in Pittsburg and Alle- 
gheny and at the academy in Beaver county. 
M^ He spent four years in Harrisonville, Scioto 

^^^\ " county, Ohio, and in 1857 came tO' Iowa. 

While living at Kossuth, Des Moines county, 
the war broke out. He enlisted in Company 
K, 2d Iowa Cavalry, and was saddler of that 
company when mustered out of the service 
He was in all the battles and skirmishes of the 
regiment. In 1865 he was granted a thirty-day furlough at a 
time when no such privilege was granted to enlisted men. This 




October 5, 1865. 



48 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1S9G. 

Special favor was shown him in recognition of gallant conduct in 
helping to capture a rebel flag at Spring Hill, Tennessee, Decem- 
ber 17, 1864. The colors belonged to the brigade commanded 
by Ross. In a desperate hand-to-hand struggle Air. Bell and 
three of his comrades made the capture and he carried the colors 
oiY the field. He has the recommendation for this furlough, 
signed by all his regiment, brigade and division commanders, and 
he prizes the document highly on account of it showing the fur- 
lough was granted because of gallant conduct on the field of 
battle. Air. Bell was married Alay 2, 1864, to Aliss Leonora AIc- 
Cray. of Des Aloines county. They have four children, Frank 
A., aged ly; Edwin B., 25; Thomas N., 19, and Florence L., 11. 
Mr. Bell has been a resident of the city of Fairfield for thirty 
years, and has been in the grocery business all the time. He is a 
charter member of George Strong post, G. A. R., has been post 
commander three years, and is an enthusiastic Grand Army man. 
He has attended nearly all the state encampments and was a dele- 
gate to some of those meetings. At one time he was senior vice 
commander of the Department of Iowa. He was president of 
the JefTerson county Soldiers' and Sailors' association for six 
years. He has been president of the board of trustees of the Col- 
lege for the inind at A^inton. He takes an active part in politics 
and in all matters that help build up the county, city and state, is 
liberal and public spirited, believes in progress, and that Iowa is 
the best state in the Union. He is an enthusiastic Republican. 



SEXATOR H. L. BY ERS.— Lucas county of late years has 
had the benefit of experienced men to represent its inter- 
ests on the floor of the Senate. For the 
next two sessions this condition of affairs 
will be continued, as the district composed of 
Lucas and Wayne counties sends the Hon. 
H. L. Byers to the Senate. He served as 
member of the House from Lucas county in 
the Twenty-first and Twenty-second General 
^p^ Assemblies, and the experience gained dur- 

;;^^^^ ing those two winters will be of material 
^ ^^^H assistance to him in his work as Senator. 
^^^^k He was born in Lucas county Alarch 10, 
JHHI 1861, and has lived in the county all his life. 
His education was gained in the common 
schools, normal schools, and the Davenport Business College. 
Beginning life on a farm, as soon as he had become competent 
he began teaching, for a time was principal in the graded schools, 
and has since engaged in the real estate and general mercantile 
business. He began his legislative career at the early age of 24. 
He was the youngest member of the Twenty-first General As- 
sembly. In spite of this fact he took an active part in the work 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 49 

of the Legislature, especially in the discussion of the prohibition 
question. Living in a district given over in great measure to coal 
mines, he naturally takes a great interest in any measure affecting 
that branch of industry. He has always been an active worker 
for the Republican party. ]\lr. Byers is a member of the Odd 
Fellows, and has been cliief patriarch of his encampment. He is 
a member of the Christian church. He is unmarried. 

SENATOR ROBERT BOXSON.— To f^ll the vacancy caused 
by the death of Senator Baldwin the Democrats of Dubuque 
county selected Robert Bonson, a young- man who was born and 
raised in the county, to represent them in the Senate of the 
Twenty-sixth General Assembly. He was born on a farm near 
Dubuque January 5, 1868, and on taking- his seat as a member of 
the Senate will be just 28 years of age, and is the youngest Sena- 
tor. As a boy he attended the public schools of Dubuque. Later 
he went to the State LTniversity of Iowa, from the law department 
of which he graduated in 1890. This was supplemented by a 
course in the law department of Columbia College of the city of 
New York. Since leaving that institution he has been practicing 
in Dubuque. He was raised a Republican, but left that party, as 
he could not agree with its policies in regard to the liciuor and 
tariff questions. He would like to see the prohibition and mulct 
laws removed from the statute books and a license law substituted 
therefor. Mr. Bonson has splendid abilitv as a speaker, and will 
be a very active member on the Democratic side this winter. 

SENATOR J. L. CARNEY.— J. L. Carney, the Senator from 
Marshall county, was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, July 
29, 1847. His boyhood days were passed 
in that city. From there the family moved 
to the west, and settled for a time at Louden- 
ville. Ohio. At that place, in 1858, a cov- 
ered wagon was fitted up, and the boy, with 
his parents, sister and brother, moved to 
what then was the far west, and settled in 
Poweshiek county, a large tract of land hav- 
ing been entered by the father, and from 
that time until the later years of the war the 
young man. was engaged in farming- and 
going to school at the country school house. 
The family afterwards moved to Grinnell, 
and a course of schooling was begun, which 
ended in graduation from Iowa College in 1871 : in 1873 ]\Ir. Car- 
ney graduated in the law department of the Iowa State L^niversitv. 
Since then his life has been that of a hard working lawyer, first 
clerking in law offices, afterwards practicing law in partnership 
with H. C. Henderson and Timothy Brown, and of late years hv 




60 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

himself. He has been engaged in much of the important litiga- 
tion of his locality, and brings to the practice of the profession an 
ardent love for the work. In 1879 he was married to Minnie E. 
Tillotson of Marshalltown, and has four children, the youngest 
being a pair of twin girls. The eldest boy is named Leonard T., 
12 years old; the next Laura M., 10 years old, and Gladys and 
Gurna, each 8 years old. Mr. Carney was a member of the last 
jiational Republican convention at Minneapolis from the Fifth 
district. His independence was shown by his being the only vote 
cast from Iowa for William H. McKinley for president. He has 
been a member of many state conventions of the Republican 
party, and has always taken an active and keen interest in politics; 
has taken part in the speaking campaigns of his section for many 
years. He has been in years past city solicitor of Marshalltown, 
and for four years, ending with 1894, was county attorney of Mar- 
shall county. Mr. Carney has become identified with the busi- 
ness interests of his city and locality in a substantial manner, and 
is attorney for manv of the large business interests of that locality. 

SENATOR C. A. CARPENTER.— The district composed of 
JNIuscatine and Louisa counties sent to the Senate in 1893 the 
Hon. C. A. Carpenter of Columbus Junction. 
He was born and raised in Louisa county 
and is honored by friends who have known 
^■lil^ him all his life. Mr. Carpenter was born in 

^^^} Oakland township, Louisa county, January 

^■0m-i9. 12. 1864. He attended school at Columbus 

Junction, afterwards at the Iowa City Acad- 
emy and the law department of the State 
L'niversity, graduating from the last named 
at the age of 20. He was not admitted to 
the bar until he was of age, and spent the 
interval in active labor on his father's farm 
in Oakland, as he had done in all his vaca- 
tions. September 22, 1885, he was united 
in marriage to Miss Grace Wolverton at Iowa City, and they 
came at once to Columbus Junction, where they have since re- 
sided. Their married life has been only once interrupted in its 
happiness l^y the loss of a child, two others, Mary, aged 8, and 
Albert, Jr., remaining to them. Mr. Carpenter served a term as 
city attorney for Columbus Junction and was then elected mayor 
three times. When the time came to choose a Senator he was 
considered the strongest man by the Republicans and made the 
run, winning easily. He has the confidence of all Louisa county 
people who know him. He is a director in two banks and is an 
active worker in the Knights of Pythias and Odd Fellows. Even 
though he was the youngest member of the Senate in 1894, he was 
a man of influence. He was chairman of the committee 





THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 51 

on schools, a member of the judiciary committee, and also the 
committee on the suppression of intemperance. In the settle- 
ment of this question he was one of the hardest workers. At the 
close of the session he was made chairman of the sifting commit- 
tee, undoubtedly the most important post of the whole session. 
He' will be more than ever influential this winter. 

B. F. CARROLL. — Was born in Davis county, Iowa, Alarch 
Is i860. His parents were Willys and Christena Carroll, who 
emigrated from Ohio in 1854. He grew to 
manhood upon a farm, where he received a 
good country school education and became 
a teacher in the public schools of the county. 
He afterward attended school at the South- 
ern Iowa Normal, at Bloomfield, and the 
North INIissouri State Normal, at Kirksville, 
Missouri, from which latter institution he 
graduated in 1884, receiving the degree of 
B. S. D. During the five years following he 
taught in the graded schools of Missouri, 
three years as principal of the public schools 
at Jamesport and two years as superintend- 
ent of the public schools at Rich Hill. While 
attending school at Kirksville he madethe acquaintance of Miss 
Jennie Dodson, a classmate and quite an accomplished elocution- 
ist, to whom he was married June 15, 1886. They now have one 
child, Paul, a bright little boy 6 years of age. In 1889 Mr. Car- 
roll located in Bloomfield, Iowa, the county seat of his native 
county, and January i, 1891, purchased a cne-half interest in the 
Davis County Republican, Mr. A. H. Fortune, who owned the 
other half of the paper, being postmaster at this time. Mr. Car- 
roll assumed the entire management of the paper, and in 1893 
purchased the entire plant, which he has continued to own ever 
since, and has built the paper up and made it one of the best in the 
state. During the time that he has edited the official organ of his 
party the county has changed from an almost hopelessly Demo- 
cratic to a reasonably reliable Republican county, much of which 
is due to his management of the paper and to his untiring work 
upon the stump. In 1892 Mr. Carroll was honored by being" 
nominated by the Republicans of the Sixth Congressional district 
as their candidate for presidential elector, and had the pleasure of 
sitting in the electoral college of Iowa and casting his vote for 
Benjamin Harrison and Whitelaw Reid. In 1893 the party nomi- 
nated him as a candidate for the lower House of the Legislature 
from Davis county, and although in a Democratic county he was 
defeated by only a small plurality. Again in 1895 he was chosen 
as a candidate, this time as Senator from the Appanoose-Davis 
district, to -run against a fusionist, and although the district in 



52 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

the i)revious election had given 250 majority against the Repul)- 
licans, ]\lr. Carroll was elected by nearly 200 votes. He is one of 
the voimgest men who will occupy a seat in the Senate, and his 
place was won by vigorous and untiring work in the campaign. 

SEXATOR THO^IAS A. CHESHIRE.— Polk county sent a 
new man to the state Senate in 1893 in the Hon. Thomas A. 
Cheshire of Des Moines. He is an Iowa 
man all through, having been born at Mon- 
tezuma. April 2, 1854. His parents were 
^1^ John W. and Grace Al. Cheshire. His school 

^^^^ training was a ver\- thorougli one, begin- 

Wt^mm ning with the city schools ot Aloniezuma 

and ending with graduation from the law 
department of [Michigan University in 1876. 
^^^ ^W«, ^'-' ^^^*-* attended lovva College at Grinnell 
^^^^^k -'flj^ and the Iowa State University at Iowa City. 
^^^^^^^^^H Returning to the home of his childhood he 
^HHjjjjjJPIiPJ^ began the practice of his profession, in which 

— ■ — he was very successful from the start. In 

1877 he was chosen attorney of Poweshiek 
county for several years prior to the enactment of the law doing 
away with district attorneys. In 1886 the Republicans nominated 
him for county attorney, but he declined the honor as he was just 
about to remove to Des Moines. On taking up his residence in 
the capital city Mr. Cheshire opened an office on the East Side, 
where he continued until early in 1892. At that time he entered 
the law firm of Cole & ]\Ic\'ey, changing the name to Cole, Mc- 
\'ey & Cheshire. By the retirement of the senior member of the 
firm it became McVey & Cheshire, now one of the leading legal 
firms in the city. Since coming to Des Monies Mr. Cheshire has 
devoted himself strictly to his profession, taking an interest in 
politics only as a public spirited citizen. In 1893 the Republicans 
named him as their candidate for the Senate and he was elected 
by a good majority after a vigorous campaign. He has been 
married twice. His first wife, Virginia B. McClelland, died Au- 
gust 3, 1880. a little over a year after her marriage, leaving a 
daughter, Clara. December 3, 1884, Mr. Cheshire was married 
to Hattie L. Hills. They have .two children, Henry Hale Chesh- 
ire, aged 6 years, and Everett Emmett Cheshire, aged 2 vears. 
Senator Cheshire was raised in the Methodist church, and al- 
though not a member, attends frequently. He demonstrated his 
ability during the last Legislative session to properly care for 
everything which was left to him. He was a member of the fol- 
lowing committees: . Judiciary, cities and towns, agriculture, 
judicial districts, printing and labor, and took an active part in 
the legislation, Ijoth m the conmiittee room and upon the floor of 
the Senate. 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 




SENATOR JOHN DOWNEY.— In the Senate for the county 
of Lee is the Hon. John Downey. He is an Irishman and comes 
of excellent Irish ancestry and parentage, 
and possesses all the warm and generous 
qualities of the Celtic race. He was born 
near Belfast in 1834, and at the age of 20 
years set sail for the new world. After reach- 
ing the United States he lived in the state of 
New York for about two years, then went to 
Ohio, and soon afterwards crossed the ^lis- 
sissippi into the Hawkeye state, settling in 
Lee county, of which he has since been a 
resident and continuously eng^aged in agri- 
cultural pursuits. Previous to being chosen 
Senator by his brethren of the Democratic 
faith he held the olBce of justice of the peace 
for 18 years. In party service he was chairman of the county cen- 
tral committee and had charge of several victorious campaigns. 
He is a member of the Odd Fellows. Senator Downey was 
raised in the Presbyterian church, and although not a member of 
any, is liberal in his views and a friend of all denominations. 
During the session of the Twenty-fifth General Assembly he 
served on the standing committees on appropriations, suppression 
of intemperance, agriculture, charitable institutions, constitutional 
amendments, suffrage and federal relations. Quite a number of 
the measures he proposed were enacted into laws. He did good 
work in the committees and was well liked by both Democrats 
and Republicans, as on public questions he showed common sense 
and good judgment. In political matters he acts in entire har- 
mony with his party. 



SENATOR GEORGE M. CRAIG.— With a record of meri- 
torious service in the army and public office the Hon. George M. 
Craig comes to the Senate of the Twenty- 
fifth General Assembly from Butler county. 
He was born June 18, 1844, at Waukegan, 
Illinois, and was educated in the public 
schools of his native town. His parents 
were George Wilson Craig and Mary E. 
Craig, nee Moore. He had not left school 
r ^ when the war broke out, but for all that he 

^J^ Jj^^^, enlisted in Company H, 88th Illinois In- 
^K'^^^^H|| fantry, as private. In the long struggle at 
■H^fl^^^Hj Stone river, lasting from December 30, 
HBflHHpH|F 1862, to January 3, 1863, he was fighting 
— ^ with his regiment. On September 3, 1863. 

at Chickamauga he was severely \\ounded 
and left on the field for seven days in the hands of the enemy. On 



^7 -W 



54 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

the 29th he was paroled. July 30, 1864, he was discharged for 
physical disability on account of the wound he had received. He 
returned to Illinois, and after recovering moved to Allison, Iowa, 
engaging in business. In 1867 he was elected county recorder 
of Butler county. He filled the office for three full terms. Dur- 
ing his leisure moments he devoted himself to the study of law, 
the result being that he was admitted to the bar at Grundy Center 
in January, 1873, only a few days after he quitted the recorder's 
office. Ever since then he has been practicing his profession. 
He has identified himself with several secret orders, the Masons, 
Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic. He has been married twice, his first wife being Frances AI. 
Bailey, to whom he was wedded at Butler Center, Iowa, Septem- 
ber 26, 1867. She died November 19, 1878, leaving two daugh- 
ters, both married now, Mrs. G. H. Cheever, Hardy, Iowa, and 
Mrs. J. W. Arbuckle, Parkersburg, Iowa. October 28, 1879, ^i^- 
Craig was married to Mary E. Chaplini at Bristow, Iowa. She 
has borne him two children, Lois ]\I., aged 27, and Marshall B., 
aged 21. In the last Senate ]\Ir. Craig was chairman of the com- 
mittee on corporations and a member of the committees on judi- 
ciary, appropriations, compensation of public officers, claims, 
federal relations, penitentiaries and pardons. 

SEXATOR LYMAN A. ELLIS.— Lyman A. Ellis, Senator 
from Clinton county, is a native of Vermont. In 1855, having 
completed his law course and attained his 
majority, he was admitted to the bar, and 
came west, stopping temporarily at dififerent 
places in Wisconsin and Kansas, and finally 
settling permanently in Clinton county, 
Iowa, in 1861. In 1863 he was elected 
district attorney of the Seventh Judicial dis- 
trict, comprising the counties of Aluscatine, 
Scott, Clinton and Jackson, and continued 
in that office until 1880. Mr. Ellis is well 
known in central eastern Iowa as a success- 
ful advocate and trial lawyer. His practice 
in the federal courts has been considerable 
and in the supreme court of Iowa as extens- 
ive as any lawyer of his locality, if not equal to any practitioner 
before that tribunal. His political baptism was in the Republican 
party and ever since he has abided in the faith, though conserva- 
tive, and liberal toward those of different party affiliations. Since 
he left the judicial office which he filled so long and satisfactorily 
for all, he has declined all nominations until 1893, when he was 
urged to accept the candidacy for state Senator. This he did, and 
by making speeches in nearly every township in the county he 
contributed largely to the success of the entire Republican county 




THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 55 

ticket. j\Ir. Ellis is a tall, spare gentleman without striking- or 
commanding personal presence, but his kindly, conciliating bear- 
ing and uprightness of conduct and character, and clear views of 
all varied affairs of life, gradually attract toward him warm per- 
sonal friends and the universal respect of his fellow citizens. He 
was raised a ^Methodist, but his wife being of the Episcopalian 
faith, he has maintained a decided allegiance without excessive 
loyalty to any denominational shrine. He has no special objects 
of legislation except the rational wants of his constituents. Gen- 
erally he is for the cardinal principles of the Republican party as 
manifested in recent platform utterances. Senator Ellis was a 
very prominent member of the Senate two years ago, coming for- 
ward especially in the discussion of the temperance and woman 
suffrage questions. He was chairman of the committee on banks 
and a member of the committees on ways and means, judiciar}-, 
appropriations, suppression of intemperance, cities and towns. 

SENATOR F. O. ELLISON.— The Senator from Jones 
county was born in New York city July 4, 1853. He attended 
school in that place, gaining not only a com- 
mon school education, but also finished a 
law course. He settled in Wyoming, Jones 
county, Iowa, in May, 1875, ^''^'^ commenced 
the practice of law, and has continued in the 
active practice ever since. He now enjoys 
a large and lucrative practice in Jones and 
adjoining counties. Always a Republican, 
his friends have delighted to honor him. He 
served as mayor- of Wyoming for two terms. 
When the office of county attorney was cre- 
ated, he was brought out as a candidate and 
was elected to that office three times, and 
refused a nomination for the fourth term. 
In 1889 he moved to Anamosa and formed a co-partnership with 
Ezra Keeler in the law business. This continued until Mr. 
Keeler finally moved to Denver, Colorado. He served as mayor 
of Anamosa for two years. Twice he has served as chairman of 
the Jones county Republican central committee. His county has 
been represented by Democratic representatives for many years. 
In 1893 the Republicans tendered him the nomination;' he ac- 
cepted, made the fight, and was elected, running ahead of his 
ticket 125 votes. The Twenty-fourth Senatorial district has been 
represented by a Democrat for years. Mr. Ellison served with 
such marked ability in the last House that his friends concluded 
to send him to the Senate this winter, as the term for the Cedar- 
Jones counties district Senator expired. He was unanimouslv 
nominated and elected by a majority of 225 over John A. Greeii, 
the strongest Democrat in the district. Mr. Ellison was a mem- 




5€ THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

l)cr of the coniiiiittees on judiciary, appropriations, federal rela- 
tions, constitutional amendments, penitentiaries, militar\', con- 
gressional districts and municipal corporations, and was chair- 
man of one of the subcommi'ttees of judiciary. He is a member 
of the Odd Fellows, Knig-hts of Pythias and Modern Woodmen. 
He attends the ^lethodist church. 

SENATOR WILLIAM EATOX.— The Page and Fremont 
count\' Repul)licans in 1893 decided to send a lawver to the Sen- 
ate of the Twenty-fifth (jeneral Assembly, 
and selected the Hon. William Eaton of Sid- 
ney as the man. He was elected easily. 
f He is one of the native lowans in the Senate, 

having been born on a farm in Lee county, 
^ Iowa, October 9, 1849. After attending the 

J^ common schools he went to the Denmark 

^^k^^^^ Academy at Denmark, Iowa. In order to 

^(jj^^Hjjjj^l^^k fit himself for a professional career he en- 
^iPBPHH||jr| tered the law department of the State L'ni- 
versity at Iowa City and completed the 
course. He then located at Sidney and be- 
gan to practice. He has met with success. 
During the time when attorneys were elected 
to care for the affairs of judicial districts he was a district attorney. 
Since then he lias filled the position of county attorney for Fre- 
mont county. He is an intense Republican, and for years upheld 
that party with only a few supporters in his county. Senator 
Eaton in the last Legislature gained the good will of all the mem- 
bers by his fairness in the discussion of all cfuestions and his good 
sense. Senator Eaton was married August 4, 1874, to Annie E. 
Grundy. Thev have two children, Elmer F., aged 19; Lillie, 16. 
He is a meml)er of the Odd Fellows, and is a ^lethodist. 

SENATOR CHARLES J. A. ERICSON.— Senator Ericson 
is one of the new members of the Senate who will have the ex- 
perience gained in the House to help him in his Senatorial career. 
He was a member of the House in the Fourteenth General As- 
seml)ly. He was born in Sweden March 8, 1840, and came to 
this country when a child 13 years old. He lived in Moline and 
Altoona, Illinois, from 1852 to 1859, and since then has been a 
resident of Roone county. He received his education in the 
common schools. Beginning active life as a farm hand, he has 
since been engineer in a saw mill, clerk, merchant, and in 1875 
began banking, which at present occupies his attention. He has 
always been a Republican, and has held all the township offices 
from road supervisor up. He has also been alderman, president 
and treasurer of the school board of Boone, and city treasurer, 
and was a member of the House in the Fourteenth General As- 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 57 

sembly. He has identified himself with the Masonic fraternity, 
being a member of the blue lodge chapter and Knight Templars. 
He belongs to the Presbyterian church. Senator Ericson was 
married a number of years ago to Miss Nellie Linderblood, of 
Princeton, Illinois, and they have two daughters. In 1894, ac- 
companied by his daughter Lorena, he made a tour of Europe, 
Egypt and Palestine, and visited his native country for the first 
time since he left it as a child. Mr. Ericson is very well equipped 
for the duties which will devolve upon him in the Senate during 
the term for Avhich he has been elected. 

SENATOR SA^IUEL DRUET.— The first RepubHcan Sena- 
tor for the district composed of Marion and Monroe counties is 
the Plon. Samuel Druet, M. D. Two years 
ago he made the race for the lower House 
from Marion county and managed to reduce 
the Democratic majority 363 votes. He was 
born in Piqua, Ohio, August 20, 1844. He 
came to Iowa at the ag-e of 13 and made liis 
liome at Bloomfield till 1876, when he set- 
tled at his present home, Marysville, IMarion 
county. He took a medical course in the 
College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keo- 
kuk, graduating- in 1874. He is a member 
of the Iowa State Medical Society and has 
been president of the Des Moines Valley 
Medical Society. During the war he served 
as a member of Company I, 161 st Ohio Infantry. He was mar- 
ried at Bloomfield to Aliss Rosetta H. Abbott. They have seven 
children, John F., aged 28; Ella A., 26; Charles H., 23; WilHam 
S., 21; Arthur L., 18; Fred, 15; Jennie J., 13. Dr. Druet is a 
member of the G. A. R. and the Odd Fellows. He belongs to 
the Methodist church. He has always been a Republican, and 
this is the first public office he has ever held. He is opposed to 
the saloon and to manufacturing liquors in the state, so it is safe 
to say he will vote in favor of resubmission and against manufac- 
turing in the Legislature this winter. 

SENATOR JOHN EVERALL.— The Hon. John Everall, 
Senator from Clayton county, is one of the good old English 
stock. He was born in Shropshire, England, April 20, 1839. 
His parents moved to this country while he was still very 
young, so by practical experience he did not get much of an idea 
of his native country. They settled on a farm in Clayton county 
and sent John to school. He did as most boys in the countr}^ do 
— worked on the farm while not at school and studied indus- 
triously while he had a chance. When the war came on he was 
found ready to fight for his adopted country. The records show 




58 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

that he was first sergeant of Company E, 27th Iowa Infantry 
when he was mustered out at the close of the difHculty. He was 
married in October, 1865. . Mr. Everall has spent the greater 
part of his hfe on the farm, though this is not the only pursuit for 
which he is fitted. The people of Clayton county have seen fit to 
place him in charge of their schools for four years, and afterwards 
made him county auditor for six years. In both of these positions 
he gave satisfaction, for in 1891 they elected him to the Senate, 
and again in 1895. In the last Senate he was a member of the 
committees on ways and means, schools, agriculture, labor, ihigh- 
ways and militar}'. 

SENATOR WARREN GARST.— Carroll county has the 
Senator from the district composed of Sac, Carroll and Greene 
counties. For a long time Sac county has had the Senator, but 
a change in men was made in 1893 and the Senatorship was 
turned over to the Hon. Warren Garst, of Coon Rapids. He was 
born in Dayton. Ohio. December 6, 1850. His parents were M. 
and ^l. L. Garst. He spent his boyhood in Illinois attending 
school. In 1873 he moved to Coon Rapids, Sac county, and 
opened a store. He is a Republican in politics. Of the secret so- 
cieties he belongs only to the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 
Senator Garst is married. In the Senate two years ago he showed 
himself to be a good worker, especially in the committee rooms. 
He was chairman of the committee on public buildings and a 
member of the conmiittees on appropriations, charitable institu- 
tions, schools, mines and mining, and commerce. 

SENATOR GILBERT S. GILBERTSON.— The Senatorial 

district composed of Mitchell. Winnebago and Worth counties 

will be represented in the Senate this win- 

I ter by the Hon. G. S. Gilbertson, of Forest 

City. He is a man who has made his way 

gj^ successfully in private life and has shown 

^faif. ability and integrity in the discharge of pub- 

^lyL lie duties. He was born in Spring Grove, 

^^H^^ Houston county, Minnesota, October 17, 

^^^^m^^il 1863. He lived there till his parents moved 

^^^^^^^H|| to Worth county, Iowa, in 1879. I^i 1884 he 

■^^^^^ ^^H moved to his present home at Forest City. 

S^HHy|HPI Mr. Gilbertson gained a good common- 

^^I^^T^ school education and supplemented it by a 

course in the business college at Janesville, 

Wisconsin. Until 1884 most of his time was 

spent on the farm. In that year he became bookkeeper and 

salesman of an agricultural implement house. Next year he went 

into a general store in the same capacity. In 1888 he was elected 

clerk of the district court of Winnebago county, to which place 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 5» 

ihe has been re-elected three times. Besides this he has eight 
times been elected city treasurer of Forest City, and has served 
seven years as secretary of the board of education. He has been 
the choice of the Republican party for all these positions. Mr. 
Gilbertson was married seven years ago to Miss Belle D. Whit- 
ney. They have two daughters, Iva S., aged 5, and Gladys L., 
aged 3. He belongs to the Masons and Knights of Pythias, and 
is a member of the Lutheran church. In business circles he is 
president of the Buffalo Center State bank, at Buffalo Center; 
cashier of the Forest City National bank, at Forest City ; secretary 
of the Forest City Land and Abstract Company, and a member of 
the firm publishing the Winnebago Summit, the oldest newspaper 
in the county. 



SENATOR J. R. GORRELL.— One of the hold-over Sena- 
tors is the Hon. J. R. Gorrell. He is a native of Indiana, born 
in 1837. In 1863, having become a physi- 
cian, he entered the army as surgeon in the 
139th Indiana, and in that capacity served 
till the conclusion of the struggle. In 1865 
he settled in Jasper county, which has since 
been his home. In his practice he has been 
^^t^ very successful. Dr. Gorrell has been one 

^g^i^gjj^^ of the hardest workers for the Republican 
II^^^^P^HK' party in the state. His first vote was for 
I^^^H^^^Pf Lincoln. Jasper county has been one of the 
^^HHJP*i difiEicult localities of the state to handle. It 

has always been a hard fight for any party to 
be successful, and particularly so for the Re- 
publicans, because all other shades of poht- 
ical belief have combined against the Republican party. Through 
all the struggle Dr. Gorrell has assisted his fellow-workers by 
work and liberal contributions. He did not seek honors for him- 
self, and his selection as Senator two years ago was the first office 
he ever held. In the last Senate he was chairman of the com- 
mittee on claims and a member of the committees on agriculture, 
labor, public health, highways, penitentiaries and pardons and 
schools. He is liberal and practical in his ideas of legislation. 
On national questions he has very decided opinions. He be- 
lieves that silver should be restored to its right of free coinage at 
the ratio of 16 to i by the United States regardless of the action 
of other countries, although he would like to see the matter set- 
tled by international agreement. Believing such action to be an 
impossibility he is in favor of the United States taking the lead 
in doing what is the right thing. He stands in this respect along 
with Blaine and other great Americans who believe in the abiding- 
supremacy of this country. 



60 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

SENATOR A. B. FUNK.— One of the editorial contingent on 
the floor of the Senate is the Hon. A. B. Funk, representing the 
district composed of Emmett, Clay, Palo Alto, Dickinson and 
Kossutli counties. He was born in Adams county, Illinois, Janu- 
ary 12, 1854. His father was a Baptist minister. In 1865 the 
family moved to Iowa and settled in Hamilton county. "Abe," 
as he was then called, attended school until 18 years of age, when 
he went to work at printing in the office of the Spirit Lake Beacon. 
In 1872 he secured an interest in the office and nine years later 
became sole proprietor. He has been mayor of Spirit Lake and 
held the office of postmaster, for two years and a half. In 1884 
he was a delegate to tlie Republican national conyention. His 
first election to the Senate was in 1887. He has seiwed two full 
terms and was this fall selected for the third time to represent 
his district. He had a specially trying time last session as chair- 
man of the committee on the suppression of intemperance, but 
all agree that he conducted the affairs of the committee wisely. 
He was married in August, 1878, to INIiss Dena Barkman, of Spirit 
Lake.. They haye several children. He is a member of the Ma- 
sonic fraternity. 



SENATOR T. G. HARPER.— Des Moines county is ably rep- 
resented in the Senate by the Hon. T. G. Harper, of Burlington. 
Mr. Harper was born in Xenia, Green county, 
Ohio, forty-three years ago. He attended 
the schools in his native town and gained a 

4 good education. Removing to Monmouth, 

Illinois, and taking good care of himself, 
Mr. Harper then began the study of law 
in the office of Judge William C. Norcross. 
It was a difficult matter to work, study and 
make both ends meet while trying to gain 
the knowledge necessary to success in his 
profession. On July 8, 1880, he was made 
happy by being admitted to practice before 
the Illinois supreme court. He began a gen- 
eral practice, but continued this for onl} 



two years. He then went to Burlington, Iowa, and became at- 
torney for the Burlington Insurance Company. As he has taken 
an active interest in public affairs he is a member of the Bur- 
lington city council. He has been honored by his local lodge 
of Odd Fellows with the highest position in its gift. Without any 
special ax to grind Mr. Harper comes to the Senate ready to act 
upon any h\\\ that wall benefit the state, or to unriiake any law 
which is now working for its injury. He will be with the minor- 
ity on any party questions, for he says with Senator Hill, of New 
York: "I am a Democrat." During his first session two years 




THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 61 

ago he took high rank among the members of the upper House. 
He made a number of speeches, notably on woman suffrage and 
the temperance question, both of which attracted more than or- 
dinary attention. He was a member of the committee on judi- 
ciary, cities and towns, raihvays, insurance, Congressional and 
judicial districts, claims, manufactures. Senator Harper is mar- 
ried and has several children. 

SENATOR THOS. D. HEALEY.— The Calhoun-Webster 
Senatorial district is to be represented on the floor of the Senate 
this winter by the Hon. Thos. D. Healey, of 
Fort Dodge. He was born in Lansing, Al- 
lamakee county, Iowa, May 25, 1865. He 
lived there fifteen years and since then his 
home has been at Fort Dodge. He has re- 
ceived an excellent education in the Lansing 
high school, Notre Dame University, at 
Notre Dame, Indiana, and the law depart- 
ment of the University of Michigan. Since 
1886 he has been actively engaged in the 
practice of law in Fort Dodge. For five 
years he was city solicitor. He has always 
taken an active interest in politics. He was 
a member of the committee on resolutions of 
the Republican state convention of 1893, and introduced the 
famous thirteenth plank in the platform of that year in regard to 
the liquor question. His action this winter will be in line with 
the policy there outlined. He is a member of the Catholic church. 
He belongs to the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Pro- 
tective Order of Elks. Mr. Healey is one of the bachelors of the 
Senate. 

SENATOR W. F. HARRIMAN.— Meritous service on the 
part of the Hon. W. F. Harriman in the Twenty-fourth and Twen- 
ty-fifth General Assemblies brought about his return to the Twen- 
ty-sixth by the people of Franklin county. In the previous Leg- 
islatures he vvas one of the most active and able members on the 
Republican side of the House and his constituents are well aware 
of his good work. He was born in Warner, New Hampshire, 
August 16, 1841, and attended the high school at Warner and at 
New London Literary and Scientific Institution, in his native state. 
He came to Iowa with his parents in i860, and located at Rock- 
ford. Fie taught school several years, and afterward studied law 
and was admitted to the bar in 1869. For fifteen years he fol- 
loAved his profession, then turned aside to take up the easier life 
of a farmer and fine stock breeder. He has held various city and 
county offices, always elected by the votes of Republicans. He is 
a member of the Masons and Odd Fellows and is a member of the 



62 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

Congregational church. Besides serving on a number of the 
standing committees of the House four years ago he was a mem- 
ber of the special committee on World's Fair, and did good work 
thereon. In the last Legislature he was chairman of the judiciary 
committee, and a member of the committees on printing, state uni- 
versity, public lands and buildings. Congressional districts, Sena- 
torial districts, rules and domestic manufactures. Coming into 
the Senate with the experience of two sessions to aid him he will 
do excellent work for the counties of Franklin, Cerro Gordo and 
Hancock, which he represents. 

SENATOR GEORGE W. HENDERSON.— One of the 
founders of the Republican party in Iowa is the Hon. George W. 
Henderson of Pocahontas county. He at- 
tended the first state convention of the party, 
held at Iowa City in 1856, and has ever 
j|_ since voted that ticket. He was born in 

r^ ^ Springfield, Illinois, April 19, 1833. He at- 

B % f tended the district schools of Springfield and 

Ml the academy at Mount Morris. Mr. Hen- 

^^■^ ^^^ derson moved to Mason City, Iowa, in 1855, 

^^Ha^^^^ and was married there December 18, 1856. 

|H|K|flP^ As a soldier he served three years and forty 

^^^^^^^ days in the 14th and 41st Iowa Infantry and 

afterward in the 7th Iowa Cavalry. After 
the war closed he returned to Mason City, 
where he had charge of a flouring mill for 
fifteen years. Then for five years he was running a lime kiln and 
quarry, and at last returned to farming, in which he is now en- 
gaged. He has held a number of township offices. Among the 
secret orders he has cared for none but the Grand Army. His 
record in the Twenty-fifth General Assembly was that of a care- 
ful legislator. He was chairman of the committee on Senatorial 
and Representative districts, and served on the committees on 
ways and means, insurance, agriculture, constitutional amend- 
ments and suffrage, claims and pharmacy. 

SENATOR C. G. HIPWELL.— Scott county has a man of 
considerable experience in the Senate in the Hon. C. G. Hip- 
well. He began his legislative career in 1888 and has been four 
times in succession elected to spend every other winter in the 
Capital city to look after the interests of Scott county. He was 
born in Cincinnati, Ohio, November 30, 1845. His parents moved 
to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, ten years later, and there he re- 
mained till 1 87 1. He was educated in the Pittsburg schools. On 
coming to Davenport, Iowa, in 1871. he started in with the slate 
roofing business, in which he has since remained. He has built 
up the most extensive trade in that line of any man in the state 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 63 

and has completed quite a number of large contracts. He was 
a member of the Davenport city council for four years and was 
also a member of the board of trustees of the soldiers' orphans' 
home. Scott county has been solidly Democratic for a long time 
and as Mr. Hip well is one of the leaders in that faith they have 
kept him in office. He is a member of the Masons, Knights of 
Pythias, Royal Arcanum, Red Men and Legion of Honor. He 
was married in 1871 to Miss Jane Pascoe, of Pittsburg. He 
has always worked and voted against the prohibitory liquor law 
and will do so again this winter. He serves his constituency well, 
and is a good member of the Legislature. 

SENATOR ALVA C. HOBART.— Cherokee county has the 
Senator from the district composed of Cherokee, Ida and Ply- 
mouth counties this winter. Alva C. Hobart, 
of Cherokee, is the man selected. He was 
born in Royalton, Wisconsin, July 26, i860, 
lived there ten years and has since been a 

f resident of Cherokee. He graduated from 

. ff the collegiate department of the State Uni- 

versity of Iowa in 1885. studied law for a 
year and then was elected clerk of the dis- 
trict court of Cherokee county. In 1889 he 
was admitted to the bar. He has been in ac- 
tice practice ever since. From 1891 up to the 
present time he has been county attorney of 
Cherokee county. As he is a Republican his 
nomination and election each time has been 
because of his loyalty to that party and his ability to perform well 
the duties devolving upon him when placed in positions of re- 
sponsibility. He was married about eight years ago to Miss Hat- 
tie L. Beckwith. They have three children, Verner C, aged 6; 
Carroll C, aged 4, and Louisa M., aged 2. Mr. Hobart belongs 
to the Masons. Though not a member of any church he attends 
the Episcopalian and Congregational. 

SENATOR ALFRED HURST.— Jackson county's Demo- 
cratic Senator, the Hon. Alfred Hurst, is now serving his second 
term. His first acquaintance with the Iowa Legislature as a mem- 
ber was in the Senate of the Twenty-fourth General Assembly. 
Mr. Hurst is a native of "Merrie England," having been born at 
Grimsby, November 19, 1846. His parents moved to Davenport, 
Iowa, while Alfred Avas quite young, and his education was car- 
ried on in the public schools of that. city. In the civil war Mr. 
Hurst was for two years in the marine service in the Mississippi 
river squadron. For the past twenty-two years he has been in 
the lime manufacturing business at Maquoketa, Jackson county, 
and is regarded as quite a substantial citizen. The people having 




64 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

confidence in his business ability placed him on the board of 
county supervisors for five years and then sent him to the State 
Senate. He is a member of the ^lasons and Odd Fellows and a 
man who makes a jolly member of any company he may join. In 
the Legislature he does not work in any special line, but watches 
all quite closely, and is found voting for the best interests of the 
people. Two years ago he served on the committees on railways, 
agriculture, labor, commerce, federal relations and enrolled bills. 

SENATOR L. M. KILBURN.— Lucien M. Kilburn, Senator 
for the Eighteenth district, composed of the counties of Madison 
and Adair, was born in West Boscawen (now 
Webster) New Hampshire, January 20, 1842. 
His parents were Eliphalet Kilburn and Me- 
hitabel Foster, the latter still living at over 
90 years of age. His grandfathers were both 
soldiers in the Revolutionary war. Senator 
Kilburn was born and reared on the farm, 
and his education acquired in the public 
schools, and at the academies of New Lon- 
don and Boscawen in New Hampshire. Like 
many of the young men of his native state, 
he passed his youth at farm work in summer 
and teaching in the public schools in win- 
ter, and was for two years superintendent of 
schools in his native town. He enhsted in Company E, i6th New 
Hampshire Volunteers in October, 1862, and served in the 19th 
Army Corps, in the department of the Gulf. Came to Iowa in 
November. 1868, and the next year settled on and improved the 
farm near Fontanelle where he now resides. He has never sought 
or held public office (except local positions) till he became a can- 
didate for the position to which he was elected in 1893. He has 
always been a strong Republican from the formation of the party, 
casting his first vote for president, for Abraham Lincoln, and has 
voted for every Republican candidate for president since that 
time. He is prominently interested in horticulture, fine stock 
breeding, better methods of agriculture, education, temperance 
and all that goes to make better citizenship, and more elevated so- 
ciety. Senator Kilburn is a member of the Grand Army of the 
Republic, and has served for several years as commander of Lents 
Post at Fontanelle; he is also a member of the Good Templars 
and Iowa Legion of Honor. In religious convictions he is a 
liberal, believing in the fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood 
of humanity, to their fullest extent, untrammeled by creed or 
sect. He helped form, and has been president from its organiza- 
tion, the Farmers' Insurance Association of Adair county, a suc- 
cessful fire and lightning insurance company, which has mater- 
ially reduced the cost of insurance to the farmers of that region. 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 65 

He was elected in the fall of 1894 secretary and treasurer of the 
Iowa Mutual Insurance Association, an association of the Mutual 
insurance companies of Iowa, which holds its annual meeting's 
in November at the state capital; and which exercises a wide in- 
fluence on the insurance interests of the state. The contest for 
renomination was memorable. Adair and Madison counties each 
had eleven votes in the nominating convention, and each claimed 
the honor of naming the Senator. After over 3,000 ballots had 
been taken there was a break of one from the Madison delegates 
and Senator Kilburn was declared the choice of the convention. 
In serving out the unexpired term of Mr. Hager, Senator Kil- 
burn showed he was a good man to represent his constituents in 
the Senate. He was chairman of the committee on compensation 
of public officers, and a member of the committees on insurance, 
schools, constitutional amendments and suffrage, retrenchment 
and reform, horticulture and forestry. 

SENATOR HENRY HOSPERS.— No man in the state of 
Iowa has made so good a reputation for honesty and devotion to 
the interests of his community as the Hon. 
Henry Hospers of Sioux county. He has been 
selected as the Senator from the district com- 
posed of Sioux, Lyon, O'Brien and Osceola 
counties. Born in the Netherlands in 1830, 
he came to America in 1840 and settled at 
Pella, Iowa. There he lived till 1870, when 
he moved to his present home at Orange 
City. He has been in the banking business 
almost continuously. He was married while 
a young man to Miss Hendrina Overkamp, 
and is the father of eight children. While 
living at Pella he was elected mayor of the 
town. About this time he began to look out 
for a suitable place to locate a colony of Holland'people, and he 
selected Sioux county as offering the greatest advantages. At 
that time the country in the northwestern corner of the state was 
very new. The county government was in the hands of a few 
corrupt individuals who fraudulently created a large debt. They 
also tried to sell off the school lands at a nominal figure, but 
this scheme was killed by Mr. Hospers. Subsequently when he 
became a resident of Sioux county and was made chairman of 
the board of supervisors he was given full power to effect a set- 
tlement of the cases growing out of the fraudulent bonds issued. 
He succeeded so well that it cost the county less than $1,000 in- 
stead of over $100,000, the amount the bonds called for. Subse- 
quently Mr. Hospers served as a member of the House of the 
Twenty-second and Twenty-third General Assemblies as a Re- 
publican. He belongs to the Dutch Reformed church. 





66 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

SEXATOR jOHX S. L()THR( )P.— Captain John S. Lotli- 
rop was born in Dover, Maine, October 9, 1836. b'or the first fif- 
teen years of his life he Hved at Dover, then 
for twelve \ ears resided near Ottawa, Illinois. 
Afterward he was a citizen of Champaign, 
Illinois, and eleven years ago he moved to 
Sioux City, where he has since resided. The 
foundation for his education was laid in the 
common schools of his native state, and all 
his subsequent learning was gained by study 
at home. He began the study of law in Chi- 
cago, but that course was interrupted by the 
war of the rebellion. At the close of that 
struggle he completed his studies, and in 1865 
was admitted to practice. Since then he has 
followed his chosen profession. His army 
record is as follows: Enlisted xApril, 1861, as private. Company 
I, iitli Illinois Infantry, three months; August, 1861, in Company 
E, 26th Illinois Infantry, and promoted immediately to second 
lieutenant ; in September of the following year he was made first 
lieutenant, and in December promoted to the captaincy, which 
position he held to the close of the war. He served with Pope at 
Island Xo. 10, New Madrid and Corinth; with Rosecrans in the 
Northern Mississippi campaign; with Grant in the campaign 
against Vicksburg; and with Sherman through the l^attle of Mis- 
sionary Ridge and the Atlanta campaign. At Atlanta, July 22, 
1864. he was taken prisoner and sent to Charleston, South Caro- 
lina, and placed with others under the fire of the Union batteries 
on Morris Island. He was exchanged in October, 1864, returned 
to Atlanta to re-enter active service, but on account of broken 
health w as mustered out of the service toward the end of the same 
month. Mr. Lothrop has been a Republican since 1856. He 
held the oftice of collector of internal revenue for the Third dis- 
trict of Iowa for four years. He has been married twice, his first 
wife, Marcia A. Page, living only six weeks after her marriage in 
March, 185.8. December 13, 1861, he was married to Marcia M. 
Mitchell of Freeport, Maine, and she is still living. They have 
liad six children, all now living but one. They are Mrs. Ger- 
truilc R. Howe, Merton L. Lothrop, Ralph \\\, George L., and 
Hattie H. Lothrop. Mr. Lothrop has been post commander and 
a member of the department council of administration of the 
Tovva department, G. A. R. He belongs to the Methodist churcli. 

SEXATOR RUDOLPH LEHFELDT.— From the Sena- 
torial district composed of Crawford, Harrison, and Monona coun- 
ties comes the Hon. Rudolph Lehfeldt, of Denison. He was born 
in Germany in 1814, and came to Iowa in 1870 settling on a farm. 
That has been his calling since. In the Senate two years ago he 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 67 

was chairman of the committee on retrenchment and reform, and 
a member of the committees on agriculture, charitable institutions, 
claims, manufactures and pharmacy. 

SENATOR A. C. HOTCHKISS.— Audubon, Dallas and Guth- 
rie counties will be represented in the Senate during the coming 
winter by the Hon. A. C. Hotchkiss, of Adel. He is a lifelong Re- 
publican, and has heretofore been an ardent Prohibitionist. 

SENATOR jrLIAN PHELPS.— The magic name of Cleve- 
land failed to win in the Cass and Shelby Senatorial district m 
1893, and tlie Hon. Julian Phelps of Atlantic was elected. He 
was born in South Hero, Vermont, x\pril 4, 1839. After finishing 
the course in the common schools of his home he went to Bur- 
lington, Vermont, to attend the State University. He completed 
an academic course in that institution and then went to Albany, 
New York, law school, from which he received a diploma. He 
had just started to practice his profession when the war broke out, 
and hastening home he lost no time in enlisting in Company K, 
nth Vermont Volunteers; he served throughout the war with 
that company as a private. In 1865 he came west and located at 
Atlantic, Iowa, to practice law. Ever since then his time has been 
devoted to his profession to the exclusion of everything else. He 
has always been a Republican. Having been one of those wdio 
endured the privations and hardships of the life in the army in 
war time he has sought to keep alive the memiory of those days by 
joining the Grand Army. He attends the Congregational church. 
Senator Phelps is married. Two years ago he was chairman of 
the committee on enrolled bills and a member of the committees 
on judiciary, insurance, labor, schools, compensation of public 
officers. 

SENATOR N. M. PUSEY.— For the first time in years Pot- 
tawattamie county is represented in the Senate by a Republican. 
Nathan Alarsh Pusey was born on a farm in 
Washington county, Pennsylvania, June 21, 
1 84 1. At the age of 8 years he removed 
with his parents to Baltimore, Maryland. 
He was there educated at Light Street Insti- 
tute, one of the best private schools in the 
city. On tlie completion of his education he 
♦^1 / read law for three years in the office of Henry 
,jg^^^lt Stockbridge, Esq., one of the most promi- 
r^^^^^mm^^ ^^^^^t lawyers at the Baltimore bar. He was 
■■||^^^Bfe|| admitted to practice in jMarch, 1863, when he 
flHH|^«>^^H entered at once upon the duties of his pro- 
^ ' fession and in a short time took a high posi- 
tion at that bar for one of his age. In April, 
1877, he removed with his family to Council Blufifs, Iowa, where 



'^] 



68 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

he has ever since continued to reside and practice his profession. 
In January, 1884, he formed a law partnership with the late 
Colonel W. F. Sapp, under the firm name of Sapp & Pusey, which 
firm continued until dissolved by the death of Colonel Sapp in 
November. 1890. In 1893 Mr. Pusey was unanimously nomi- 
nated by the Republicans as one of their candidates for Repre- 
sentative, and, although the majority to be overcome by him was 
over 1,200, he was defeated by only 140 votes. In 1895 he was 
nominated by the Republicans of Pottawattamie county as their 
candidate for the state Senate and was elected by a plurality of 
1,051 votes. Mr. Pusey has -always been a stalwart Republican. 
As ^Maryland is a common law state, it became necessary for Mr. 
Pusev during' his fourteen years" practice in Baltimore, to become 
thoroughly familiar with the principles of the common law, and 
the practice and proceedings in common law courts ; and during 
his nineteen years' practice in Iowa, it became alike necessary for 
him to study and thoroughly master code law, practice and pro- 
ceedings. Mr. Pusey is thorough in whatever he undertakes and 
by reason of his characteristic in that respect, and his knowledge 
of the common law, the code and the decisions of the courts, he is 
fully equipped to take part in the Legislature, in all matters com- 
ing before it, especially the revision of the code of Iowa, which is 
the most important measure that will come up this winter. 

SENATOR J. M. JUNKIN.— The Eighth Senatorial district, 
composed of the counties of Montgomery and Mills, has as its 
member this winter the Hon. J. M. Junkin, of 
Red Oak. He is an Iowa man all through. 
His parents came from Pennsylvania and 
Virginia to Iowa, nearly fifty years ago, and 
jdttb located at Fairfield, where Mr. Junkin was 

'"^Jl born in 1854. He resided there until, with 

''JH^ his parents, he removed to Monroe county, 

^jK^ Iowa, from which place he came to Red Oak 

*-^-^- in 1873, where he has since resided. After at- 

tending the schools at Fairfield and Red Oak, 
he took the law course in the State Uni- 
versity at Iowa City, graduating in 1879. The 
same year he formed a partnership with the 
Hon. H. E. Deemer, now judge of the su- 
preme court, and they began the practice of their profession to- 
gether. When Mr. Deemer was elected district judge in 1886 
the partnership was dissolved, and Air. Junkin continued the busi- 
ness alone. His practice has grown to be very extensive, not onlv 
at his home, but throughout Southwestern Iowa, and in the 
United States courts. Mr. Junkin has earned and now occupies 
a place among the ablest lawyers in the state. During the early 
part of his career he held a number of minor offices, but has never 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 69 

in any sense been an aspirant for public office. The practice of 
his profession has absorbed all his attention to the exclusion of 
other matters that would interfere with his success at the bar. 
Each year, however, he has devoted a part of his time to active 
work on the stump for the Republican party, and in this field he 
has always been in great demand as he is not only a forceful, but 
also an entertaining- talker. He was nominated in the Senatorial 
convention by acclamation, and the press in his part of the state, 
with one accord, spoke of him as a man in every way eminently 
qualified for the place. He was married in 1888 to Miss Olivette 
E. Chevalier, then principal of the public schools of Red Oak. 
To them has been born one child, a son, Chevalier J. Junkin. 

SENATOR JOHN A. RIGGEX.— Dr. J. A. Riggen, Senator 
from the Keokuk-Poweshiek district, was born in Knox county, 
Illinois, October 29, 1843. He was edu- 
cated in the common district schools, attend- 
ing onlv a few wdnter terms. With his 
father he settled in Missouri in 1859. When 
in his 18th year he enlisted from a strong 
secession community in the Union army on 
June 6, 1 86 1, and joined the i8th Missouri 
Volunteer Infantry on its organization in 
July follow^ing. He was never absent from 
his regiment a day during a service of over 
four years, except two months spent on vet- 
eran furlough and recruiting service. He is 
proud of the fact of having carried a musket 
nearly three years, although he was mus- 
tered out as first lieutenant. Soon after the war he began the 
study of medicine, and began the practice of his profession in 
1869. Since then he has been in continuous and active practice. 
He first located at Johnstown. Bates county, Missouri, where he 
remained ten years, coming to Wellman, Washington county, 
Iowa, in 1879, removing from that place to his present home. 
What Cheer, in 1884. He is a member of the American Medical 
Association, Iowa State Medical, and ex-president of Keokuk 
County Medical vSociety ; also belongs to the National Association 
of Railway Surgeons and the American Public Health Associa- 
tion. He has been a member of the city school board, postmaster 
under Harrison (resigning after two years service), and alternate 
from the Sixth district to the Minneapolis convention. At the 
state encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1888 he 
was elected senior vice department commander, and has held 
many other official positions in this his favorite organization. He 
has constantly been chairman of ward, city, or township com- 
mittee since 1885. and has always given freely of his strength, 
time and means for the cause of Republicanism. He is a member 




70 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

of all the Masonic bodies, the Militar\- ( )r(ler of the Loyal Legion 
of the United States, (irand Army of the Republic, Odd Fellows 
anil Knights of Pythias. At the Senatorial convention held in 
.Montezuma, September 23, 1893, he was nominated by acclama- 
tion, and elected by a majority of 885. 

SENATOR C. C. UPTOX.— Howard county honored one of 
its young men by sending him to the state Senate two years ago. 
He is Clark C. Upton and is a native of the county he represents. 
Senator Upton was born near Cresco in 1859. He took the full 
course in the conmion schools at Cresco and after that attended 
the law department of the State University at Iowa City, graduat- 
ing- in 1889. He liegan the practice of law at once in Pierre, 
."^outh Dakota, but the next year entered into a partnership with 
\V. K. IJaker at Cresco, where he has since remained. He has 
held the position of county attorney of Howard county. Always 
an active Republican, he has fought in more than one hard cam- 
paign. Senator Upton is married. He is known as one of the 
liberal Ivepublicans of the Senate as regards the liquor question. 
Two \ears ago he was chairman of the committee on printing 
and a member of the conmiittees on judiciary, suppression of 
intemperance, Congressional and judicial districts. Senatorial and 
Representative districts, engrossed bills. 

SENATOR D. J. PALMER.- In i8(;t when judge Woolsou 
resigned hi? seat in the Senate to take his present position on the 
United States bench a successor had to be 
chosen and Senator D. J. Palmer was se- 
lected as the man l>y the Republicans. 
Washington and Henry counties have long 
been in the same Senatorial district, and Mr. 
, Woolson was for many years the Senator. 

l|g^^ ' The ^^'as^.ington county Republicans in- 

JUt^*t^^ ' ''^i^ted on having the Senator after him. Mr. 
"^W^ fc^jjll Palmer was elected to fill out the unexpired 
term, and in 1893 ^^'^^ chosen to succeed 
himself. At home he is a farmer and a good 
citizen. Born in Pennsylvania November 
15' 1839, he attended the common schools 
and Washington College. In the war of the 
rebellion he sei-ved in the 8th and 25th Iowa Infantry, holding the 
rank of lieutenant colonel in the latter regiuient when the war 
closed. At Shiloh he was dangerouslv wounded. I^^or thirty- 
nine years he has been a resident of Iowa, all of the time living- in 
Washington county. The married men count him among their 
number. In his county he has held the office of auditor. Among 
Grand Army people he is well known as an active member, and 
he is a member of the United Presbvterian church. Two years 



CA 




THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 71 

ago, as chairman of the committee on constitutional amendments 
and snft'rag-e, lie had the delicate task to perform of giving the 
Avornan suffrage adherents full opportunity to present their case, 
while he personally was opposed to the movement. That he per- 
formed his duty well was evidenced by the fact that the suffragists 
said they could find no fault with Senator Palmer except that his 
opinions were wrong. He is a forceful and convincing speaker 
and a universal favorite among liis fellow Senators. 

SENATOR' H. L. WATERM AX.— Wapello county in 1893 

elected to the S^ate Senate the Hon. H. L. Waterman of Ottumwa. 

He was born in Croydon, New Hampshire, 

November 19, 1840. His father dying when 

he was 6 vears of age, he was sent to Ver- 
mont to live with an uncle, where he worked 
on the farm in summer and attended district 
school in winter. When 18 years of age he 
borrowed money to take him to California 
for the purpose of earning sufficient to give 
himself an education. He remained there 
three years teaching school and preparing 
himself for college. Returning in 1861, he 
entered the engineeering departnient of Har- 
vard University, which he left in 186.2 to en- 
list as a private in the 47th Massachusetts 
Infantr}', where lie served one year. Ele returned to college, 
graduating vvith the highest honors in June, 1864. He was then 
commissio}ied as second lieutenant in the ist N. Y. Engineers, 
was promoted to first lieutenant in February, 1865, and mustered 
out in August of that year. Soon after leaving the service he 
came to Iowa, where he has resided ever since. In 1880 he was 
elected ma^or of the city of Ottumwa, and was re-elected for four 
successive terms. In the Twenty-fifth General Assembly he was 
chairman of the committee on cities and towns, and member of 
the ways and means, manufactures, public health. Senatorial and 
Representative districts, federal relations, penitentiary and par- 
dons, and su))prcssion of intemperance committees. Senator 
W^aterman took a prominent part in all the legislation of the last 
session, was the author of the sheriff's' and justices' fees bills and 
several other bills which became laws. He was married in 1867 
to Georgia Hammond, who died three years later, leaving one 
child, Philip H. Waterman, wlio is now superintendent of the 
Wapello Coal Company at Hiteman. He was married to his 
present wife, Alice Hill, in 1879. ^Irs. Waterman was with her 
husband at Des Moines during the last session, and expects to 
spend next winter there also. She will be remembered b}- manv 
Des Moines people and members of the last General Assembh- as 
a lady of many accomplishments. 




72 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 



SENATOR WM. B. PERRTN.— Wm. B. Perrin, representing- 
the Fortv-fourth Senatorial district, composed of Floyd and 
Chickasaw counties, was born in Berlin, 
Washington county, A'ermont, January 19, 
1839. He lived on the home farm, attended 
the district school and was a student at 
Barre Academy. He entered Dartmouth 
College in 1861 and graduated in 1866. 
lfc\ / .^» During this time he served in Company B, 

J^mi^M^^ 7th Squadron, R. I. Cavalry, and in the 3d 

|^^^K||rSP|. Vermont Battery, light artillery. He took 

il^^P^ "W a course of lectures in the Albany Law 

School, and came to Iowa in the fall of 1867. 
Studied law for a time in the office of Tracy 
& Newman at Burlington, Iowa. Came to 
Nashua, Chickasaw county, in 1868, where 
he has since resided, and engaged in the practice of law. Was a 
member of the House in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth General 
Assemblies, and was elected to the Senate in 1893. Although a 
Republican in politics, having cast his first vote at the election of 
Abraham Lincoln in i860, and labored constantly for the prin- 
ciples of that party ever since, he places love of countr}^ above 
party fealty, and desires the prosperity of his country more than 
part\' success. Senator Perrin is unmarried. 



SENATOR E. G. PENROSE.— Emlen G. Penrose was born 

in Chesterfield, Alorgan county, Ohio, August 22, 1844. Genuine 

Quaker blood flows in his veins, for his an- 

cestors came to this country with William 

Penn on his fir.st voyage. The days of his 
boyhood he spent in his native state, on a 
farm, where he received a common school 
education and did such reading as he could 
in those days when books and current litera- 
ture were scarce. In i860 he removed with 
his parents to Keokuk county, Iowa, and has 
ever since been a resident of this state. 
After a short time at the State University he 
commenced the battle of life alone. In 1868 
he came to Tama, Iowa, and for a short time 
worked as clerk in a store, but in 1869 he 
removed to Grand Junction, going into the hardware business 
under tlie name of Park & Penrose. "In 1872 he returned to 
Tama and engaged in the same line there. By close attention to 
business, genial and accommodating manners, strict integrity and 
fair dealing he has not only made for himself a comfortable .com- 
petence but won the esteem and friendship of all that know him. 




THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 73 

He has several times been mayor of Tama, and has frequently 
been a member of the school board. In secret society circles he 
has identified himself with the Masons and Knights of Pythias. 
In 1893 in the election he ran 100 votes ahead of the ticket in his 
own town and increased the majority in all southern Tama, where 
he is well known. During his first session as Senator he gained 
many friends and no enemies, for his conduct was always court- 
eous to the other members, whether they were party associates or 
not. In the committees his good business judgment was a valua- 
ble aid in facilitating legislation. In the last Senate he was a 
member of the committees on cities and towns, corporations, rail- 
ways, insurance, commerce, educational institutions and chari- 
table institutions. Senator Penrose was married in 1870 to Miss 
Jennie E. Stoddard and they have one son, Frank, who is living. 

SENATOR W. O. MITCHELL.— Adams county, long Demo- 
cratic, was turned over to the Republicans in 1891, when the Hon. 
W. O. Mitchell was elected to the House of 
Representatives of the Twenty-fourth Gen- 
eral Assembly. It remained in line in 1893 
by returning him. Mr. Mitchell was born 
in Bonaparte, Van Buren county, this state^ 
April 4, 1846. His parents were George 
^4':^M ^""^^ Sarah Mitchell, pioneers of Van Buren 

/*^^^r^ county. He attended the common schools 

gg|M jH|^ at his home. When the war broke out he 
^HBk ' m/M fcnhsted with a number of other students in 
I^^H^ fllS Company C, 13th Iowa Infantry. He served 
■Hj^^^BHB three years in Crocker's brigade, was at the 

* • '''''''"'™'"^^ ' ' '^^J siege of Vicksburg, on the Meriden march, 

and was captured at Atlanta July 22, 1864. 
P"or eight months thereafter he was compelled to undergo the 
tortures of the rebel prisons at Andersonville, Florence and Salis- 
bury, his sufferings ending with the close of the war. Returning 
to Iowa, he entered Cornell College and in six years gradu- 
ated. After leaving college he entered the law ofifice of Stuart 
Brothers at Chariton, and after a year's study was admitted to 
practice. In law work he has been a success. In addition to law 
he has turned his attention to farming and live stock raising, and 
in this connection has occupied the office of president of the 
Southwestern Iowa Blue Grass League. The first public office 
he ever held was when he was elected to the Twenty-fourth Gen- 
eral Assembly as Representative. The House made that honor 
still greater by choosing him for speaker, in which position he 
served with, ability. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias 
and Grand A.rmy. In Corning he is a member of the Methodist 
church. He is married and has two children. His promotion to 
the Senate is fully deserved, and he will show in that body the 




74 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF J 896. 

same marked ability that has characterized his work heretofore, 
together with the effective methods learned l)y the experience of 
two previous sessions in the House. 

SEXATOR JAMES H. TREYvIN.— Allamakee county Re- 
publicans put up a specially strong man for Representative in the 
Hon. James H. Trewin in i8«;3, and suc- 
ceeded in electing him b}- nearly two hun- 
dred majority, although the county had pre- 
viously been strongly Democratic. Mr. 
Trewin was born in Du Page county, Illi- 
nois, Xovember 29, 1858. His education 
was gained in the public schools, Bradford 
Academy, Bradford Iowa; Cedar Valley 
Seminary, Osage, Iowa, and Lenox College, 
Hopkinton, Iowa. He began life as a 
teacher in Chickasaw countv at the age of 16. 
and continued in that profession until he was 
22. He was admitted to the bar April 27, 
1882, at Dubu(|ue. He located at Earlville 
and continued in practice tiK-re till 1889 and was mayor of the 
town during tiie last two vears of his residence there. He was 
married in April, 1883. to Miss Mattie E. Rector of Earlville. In 
the last Legislature he was a leading man on the Republican side; 
always outspoken and fearless. So well pleased were his con- 
stituents with his work that before the session closed he was talked 
of for Senator. He was unanimously nominated and easily 
elected by a plurality of 1,434. which is a record-breaker for the 
district. In his own countv his majoritv was 41 g, and he was 
ahead of his ticket in both counties. In the House lie was chair- 
man of the committee on niunicipal corporations, and did good 
work in the judiciary and other committees. Perhaps his most 
noted work of the session was in securing the passage of the bill 
for the recodification of the laws of the state. This was his pet 
measure and to secure its adoption in the House and Senate he 
exercised rare judgment and excellent generalshij). Mr. Trewin 
is a ready and convincing debater, is well versed in the laws as they 
are and understands what they should be. He is an earnest and 
willing worker and combines the elements necessary for an effi- 
cient Senator. 

SENATOR DANIEL H. YOUNG.— Delaware county sends 
a native son to the Senate of the Twenty-sixth General Assembly 
in the person of the Hon. D. H. Young of Manchester. He was 
born in Alanchester, January 9, 1857, his parents being S. R. 
Young and Sarah E. Young, pioneers of the place. He attended 
the schools of his native town, graduating- from the high school, 
and then spent a short time at the Iowa State LTniversity pursuing 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 75 

special studies in the line of civil engineering. In business he has 
combined engineering and contracting, paying special attention 
to bridge building. He is a member of several secret societies 
and attends the Methodist church. Mr. Young takes a special 
interest in the permanent improvement of the public highways. 
Two years ag-o he succeeded in having a bill passed which makes 
a beginning in the permanent work. He was chairman of the 
roads and highways committee, and served on the committees on 
railroads and' comtiierce, schools and text books, agriculture, 
mines and mining, institution for feeble minded, congressional 
districts. 

SENATOR ELBERT M. SARGENT.— To fill the vacancy 
caused by the death of Senator J. M. Rea the Republicans of the 
district composed of Black Hawk and 
Grundy counties named the Hon. E. M. Sar- 
gent. He was born in Felicity, Clermont 
county, Ohio, March 8, 1840. He made his 
home there for thirty-nine years, and for the 
last sixteen years has been a resident of 
Grundy Center. He worked on a farm and 
attended school till 18 years of age, then 
went to work in a store. In June, i860, he 
entered the general mercantile business with 
his brother at Felicity, and continued in it 
till 1874, when he closed out and went into 
the banking- business. In 1879 he made 
another change by quitting the banking busi- 
ness and his native town and coming to Iowa to live. He re- 
entered the mercantile business with Sargent Bros., and it has 
engaged his attention ever since. When Lincoln made the first 
call for troops Mr. Sargent entered the army as a volunteer. He 
served as a private during his short term of enlistment, and on re- 
enlisting was made second lieutenant of Company F, 89th Ohio 
Volunteer Infantry. In July, 1862, he was made captain of Com- 
pany K, 59th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which position he 
served till mustered out of the service at Nashville June 28, 1865. 
He then returned to business. Not long after the close of the war 
he was married to Miss Mary E. Hartley. Three children have 
been born to them: Fred M., aged 22, graduate of Iowa College 
and now a student at Harvard; Armor H., aged 19, a junior at 
Iowa College, and Grace E., aged 15, at home with her parents 
attending school. Mr. Sargent was a charter member of Wilson 
post, G. A. R., was the first senior vice commander, afterwards 
commander, adjutant, and for the past ten years has been quarter- 
master. In his native town he served four years as a member of 
the town council and six years as a member of the school board. 
In Grundy Center he has served two terms in the city council and 




76 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 



has put in fifteen years continuous service as a nieml)er of 
school board. He attends the Presbyterian church. 



the 



SENATOR J. E. ROWEN.— The subject of this sketch is of 
Irish parentage, born in Thompsonvihe, Connecticut, July 26, 
1836, where in the common and select 
schools he received his education. His 
father was in those days an exception in his 
political preferences. He became a Whig, 
and \yhen the Republican party was organ- 
ized became a Republican. The son fol- 
■ " -^ lowed in his father's footsteps and cast his 

^^tt^^'^^teaL ^^^* presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln. 

^H|^kZ|^^^^ Two years ago Senator Rowen was elected 
^^^^L^L^^B to represent the Thirty-seventh Senatorial 
H||H|HMPp district, composed of the counties of Wright, 
^^^^^^^^ Hamilton and Hardin. His firm but con- 

servative course in the troublous session en- 
suing so won the favor of his fellow Senators 
tiiat legislation in which he was interested was toward the close of 
the session passed with little difificulty. Senator Rowen is recog- 
nized as a strong advocate of equal sufifrage, age of consent and 
temperance legislation, but acts upon the axiom that "legislation 
is based on compromise," and that RepubUcan legislators must 
waive personal opinion somehow to maintain party unity and 
make successful the principles of the party. Religiously, he is a 
member of the United Brethren in Christ, and is an ordained elder 
in that church. Senator Rowen is married and has several chil- 
dren. 



THE HOUSE 



HON. W. S. ALLEN.— A native lowan is the Hon. W. S. 
Allen of Birming-ham, who represents Van Buren county in the 
House. It will be his duty to answer first 
to every roll call and on partisan measures 
start his brethren right. That duty will not 
be so onerous this time as it has been when 
the two political parties were more evenly 
divided on the floor. He was born at Hills- 
boro, Henry county, Iowa, August 26, 1856. 
His early school training was in the pubhc 
A y- ^.m^ schools of his native town. To prepare for 

jlg^jP"*flH|fc| college he went to the Denmark Academy 
■Hb fllHj i^ Lee county, from there he went to the col- 
JJ^fc '^■■H legiate department of the State LTniversity 
at Iowa City, and after pursuing a miscel- 
laneous course for several years he settled 
down to law and graduated in that deparment in 1877. Birming- 
ham in Van Buren county offered a favorable opening for a young 
lawyer, so he settled there. It proved a good thing for him, as he 
has built up a first rate practice. During the years he has resided 
there he has been mayor of the town and also president of the 
board of education. Mr. Allen belongs to the Methodist church. 
He is specially interested in building up the industrial and agri- 
cultural interests of the state and diffusing education among all 
our people. He is a fair sample of the Iowa men who have grown 
up in the state, gained their professional knowledge in our own 
public institutions, applied it afterwards in his business. Mr. 
Allen was married November 13, 1878, to Miss Ella M. McCor- 
mick. They have two children, Roydan D. INI. Allen and Grace 
H. Allen. In the last General Assembly Mr. Allen took a special 
interest in liquor legislation, and it was his idea that made the 
consent of 65 per cent of the population necessary in counties 
where there are municipal corporations of more than 5,000 to 
allow the mulct to operate. He served as chairman of the com- 
mittee on Senatorial districts, and was a member of the commit- 
tees on judiciary, federal relations, municipal corporations, claims, 
banks and banking, printing, constitutional amendments. Mr. 
Allen was one of the active members of the House and was often 



78 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

heard on the floor of that l^ody on questions of pubhc importance. 
He is the only man in thirty years to be sent from \'an Huren 
countv to the House for a second time. 



HOX. i.EC). T. IIAKER.— One of the Scott county members 
of the House this winter is the Hon. Geo. T. Baker of Davenport. 
He was born on a farm in Iowa county Jitly 9, 1859. At the age 
of 13 he moved with his mother to Iowa City to take advantage 
of the educational advantages offered by the academv and the 
State University, where he spent three years. At tiie age of 16 
he entered Cornell University at Ithica, X^ew York, where he 
finished a four years' course in civil engineering. Until 1888 he 
was connected with several railways as division engineer, locating 
engineer and engineer in charge of construction, as chief engineer 
of the high bridges built across the Mississippi river at Muscatine 
and Clinton. Iowa, and Winona, Minnesota. In 1892 he entered 
the firm of the Edwards 8: Walsh Construction Company, engi- 
neers and contractors. Of this firm he is manager and chief en- 
gineer. In 1879 he was married at Ithaca, Xew York, to Miss 
Clara I. Poole. They have three children, Ethel M., aged 15; 
Georgia E., aged 13, and Sue A., aged 10. He has always been 
a Democrat, but never before aspired to any public of^ce. He 
would like to see a local option license law enacted by the Legis- 
lature this winter. Mr. T.aker attends the Episcopalian church. 

HOX. WILLIAM B. BELL.— Washington county delights in 
sending men of mature years and broad experience to the Legis- 
lature. This time, as last, it is Colonel Wil- 
liam B. Bell who has the honor. He was 
born in Muskingum county, Ohio, in 1833, 
and is now 62 years of age. The Muskin- 
gum county schools were the places in which 
he obtained liis education. He early went 
to work at the blacksmith trade and grew to 
vigorous manhood while pursuing it. When 
he became of age he started for the west, 
locating at Muscatine, Iowa. With the ex- 
ception of the two years at Muscatine he has 
lived at Washington ever since. He built 
up a good business at blacksmithing and 
carriage building. Like other patriotic 
young men he enlisted at the outbreak of the war, and was unani- 
mously elected captain by a company of one hundred men. He 
was assigned to Company C, 8tli Iowa Infantry. That gallant 
regiment was at bloody Shiloh, and Captain Bell with the rem- 
nant of his company was captured and sent to Libbv prison. 
From that ghastly death trap he was paroled in October of 1862. 




THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 79 

He was a field officer in the campaign against Vicksburg. In 
July, 1863, came a promotion to the position of Heutenant colonel, 
and from October of that year till the end of the war he was in con- 
tinuous command of the 8tli Iowa. When Forest made his raid 
on Memphis Colonel Bell was in command of the Union forces 
that opposed him. For meritorious conduct at the storming and 
siege of a Spanish fort at Mobile he was made brevet colonel. 
With this honorable record he returned to Washington and re- 
sumed his business. After a number of years he was elected to 
the county board of supervisors. In 1879 ^^^ '^^^.s appointed post- 
master at Washington and retained the place till 1885. Not car- 
ing to return to the shop, he bought a fine farm near town and has 
ever since been engaged with his crops and fine stock. He has 
for a long time been a member of the United Presbyterian church. 
He is married and has one daughter. 

HON. D. H. BOWEN.— Dr. D. H. Bowen, member of the 
House from Allamakee county, was born in Green county, Wis- 
consin, in 1850. He was reared on a farm, 
and attended the local schools, including an 
academic course. He then turned his atten- 
tion to school teaching. At the age of 22 he 
began the study of medicine at Brodhead, 
Wisconsin. He graduated from Rush Medi- 
cal College in 1876. Not long after he 
moved to Rossville, Allamakee county, 
where he remained till 1880. He then re- 
moved to Waukon, where he has since re- 
mained. He has been very successful in his 
practice. Dr. Bowen was married soon 
after he graduated from the medical college 
to Miss Hettie E. Burns. They have two 
children, a boy of 16 and a girl of 10. He has always been an 
active worker for the Republican party, serving as chairman of the 
county central committee for several years. He has held the po- 
sitions of coroner, president of the school board and pension ex- 
aminer. 

HON. C. F. BAILEY. — Sioux county's Representative this 
winter is the Hon. C. F. Bailey of Ireton. ' He was born in Ross 
county, Ohio, April 3, 1842. "The first five years of his life were 
spent in his native state, three years in Indiana, and since 1850 
he has lived in Iowa. He received his education in the common 
schools and has always been a farmer. At the outbreak of the 
war he enlisted. He served the full term of the war, being mus- 
tered out ill November, 1865. Shortly after this he was married 
to Miss Elizabeth Morris. They have six children, four girls and 
two boys. He is one of the men who can l)e nothine but a Re- 




80 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

publican. In his own locality he has no enemies, having- been 
chosen to fill different township offices at various times. He has 
served a number of terms as commander of his G. A. R. post, and 
besides being- a member of this organization belongs to the Odd 
Fellows. He is a member of the A'lethodist church. 

HON. J. W. BIRD.— The member of the House for Cerro 
Gordo county this winter is the Hon. J. W. Bird of Portland. He 
is a Republican, and his county is one in which the prohibition 
sentiment prevails. It is expected he will try to follow the policy 
which will result in keeping the prohibitory laws intact. 

HOX. EZRA M. BRADY.— O'Brien county's Representative 
is the Hon. Ezra AI. Brady of Sanborn. He was born in Hanib- 
den, Ohio, March 29, 1845. After a mod- 
erate amount of schooling he began life as 
a clerk in a store. After a year of this he 
went to the oil wells of western Pennsyl- 
vania, where he spent three years. During- 
the next five years he was in Ohio as a dealer 
in fruit trees, and after that went back to 
Pennsylvania as an oil well operator. Not 
long after this he concluded to try his luck 
in the west, so went to O'Brien county. 
There he went into the hardware and ma- 
chinery business, which has engaged his at- 
tention most of the time since. Three years 
ago he became interested in the First Na- 
tional Bank of Sanborn, and since then has been president of the 
institution. Besides this he has been extensively interested in 
buying and selling live stock. He was married about fifteen 
years ago to Miss Clara A. Roberts. They have three children, 
Eva, aged 12; V'ern, 10, and Ezra, 7. Mr. Brady has advanced 
as far in ]\Iasonic circles as the Knight Templar. He attends the 
Presbyterian church. During the time he has lived at Sanborn 
he has been a member of the board of supervisors of the county, 
and has been mayor of Sanborn six years. He has always been a 
Republican. 

HON. M. H. BRINTON. — So satisfactory was his service in 
the Twenty-fifth General Assembly, the constituents of the Hon. 
M. H. Brinton gave him the unanimous nomination for a second 
term in the Plouse as the member from Hamilton county. He 
was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, September 16, 1856. Be- 
sides attending tlie city schools at Allegheny he went to Wash- 
ington and Jefferson College at Washington, Pennsylvania. He 
graduated from this institution in the class of i87(). taking the 
degree of bachelor of arts. He first came west in 1881 and spent 




THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 81 

the summer on a farm in Hamilton county. So well pleased was 
he with Iowa that in 1884 he moved out here to make it his per- 
manent residence. He purchased a farm and has cultivated it 
ever since. But this has not been the only line in which he has 
occupied himself. Several years ago a bank was organized at 
Ellsworth. He took an interest in the business and he showed 
such financial ability that he was soon made one of the head men 
in the concern. He still retains the place. In his township the 
people have honored him with the ofiEice of trustee and school 
director. He was nominated for the Legislature in 1893 by the 
Republicans, with whom he has always worked, and in the ensu- 
ing election secured a good majority of all the votes cast. Last 
session he was chairman of the committee on banks and banking, 
and was actively concerned as a member of the committees on 
ways and means, normal schools, federal relations, roads and 
highways and animal industry. He succeeded in having several 
important measures enacted into laws, and this session will try 
to put through several others that were crushed in the final rush. 
He will make a special efifort to have a comprehensive drainage 
law passed. 

HON. HENRY H. BRICxHTON.— Jefferson county sends a 

new man to the House this winter in the Hon. Henry H. 

Brighton of Fairfield. He was born in Mans- 

H fields Ohio, November 17, 1850. He came to 
Iowa very young with his parents. At Fair- 
field he attended the public schools, and on 
completing his studies there he was sent to De 
Pauw University at Greencastle, Indiana, 
finally completing his professional studies at 
the Iowa State University law school. While 
living in Indiana he was for a time superin- 
tendent of schools in the town of Kentland. 
Since his graduation from the law school he 

has practiced his profession continuously and 
successfully. He has been a member of the city council of Fair- 
field and for a time was United States internal revenue inspector. 
At college lie was made a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, 
and since he has joined the Odd Fellows. He usually attends 
the Methodist church. This winter he will do his share towards 
settling the liquor question. He wants to see the best plan 
adopted for disposing of the matter finally. 

HON. H. W. BYERS.— H. W. Byers, Representative from 
Shelby county, was born in Richland county, Wisconsin, Decem- 
ber 25, 1856. In 1870 he came with his parents to Howard 
county, Iowa, and there obtained a common school education. 
About six or seven years later, when he had attained his ma- 



82 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

jority, he came to Shelby county, and he then and there l)ee:an 
the career as a hustler which soon gave him the front rank among 
the people with whom he had cast. his lot, and later sent him t(j 
the Legislature. He began in Shelby county by doing whatever 
his hands found to do — manual labor, school teaching, clerking 
in a store — and in 1886 entered the law office of Macy & Gammon 
at Harlan. After two years of hard study he was admitted to the 
practice of law, receiving his diploma on examination before the 
supreme court at Des ^loines. About that time his preceptor, 
N. W. Macy, was elected to a judgeship in the fifteenth district 
and J\[r. Byers bought the practice of the old firm and paid for it 
afterwards from the proceeds of his labors. He is now assi)- 
ciated with Mr. Edmund Lockw(wd under the firm name of 
Byers & Lockwood. In the session two years ago Mr. Byers was 
one of the very prominent members. Well informed and ready 
in debate, he was on the fioor a great deal, and his speeches had 
a telling effect. He was placed on the following committees: 
Ways and means, judiciary, appropriations, hospitals for the in- 
sane, telegraphs, telephones and express, banks and banking, 
woman suffrage, public libraries and Congressional districts. 

HOX. JA^IES M. CLARK.— The Representative of the lower 
House from Adams county was born in Jefferson county, Ohio. 
He worked on the farm until 184.5, when he 
entered PYanklin College of the same state, 
remaining a student three and a half years, 
when he connuenced the study of the law in 
the office of Stanton c^ McCook in Steuben- 
ville. In 1849 he was admitted to the prac- 
tice of the law by the supreme court of Ohio. 
He then located in New Lisbon, Colum- 
biana county. After two years' practice the 
discovery of gold on the Pacific coast at- 
tracted him thither, where he remained thir- 
teen years in the mines, returning to Ohio in 
1864. In 1866 he was married to Kate Arn- 
old of the same county and state, and with 
whom he moved to Iowa in 1867, locating in Johnson countv- 
In 1875 he moved to Adams county. Mrs. ClaVk died April 6, 
1895, leaving him two children, Jennie and Prentiss, now grown 
up and living with him on the farm. Mr. Clark never held anv 
office before this one. Prior to i860 he acted with the Demo- 
crats, but since then he has been a Republican. He is not a mem- 
ber of any church. He was raised and educated in the faith of 
the Presbyterian denomination. Since the first agitation on the 
subject he has been urgent for proper control of corporations of 
whatever kind, and a firm believer in a most rigid economy in 
the affairs of the nation, state and municipalities. His position on 





THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 83 

the liquor question is in full accord with the Republican party as 
expressed in its conventions and acts in legislation. 

HON. O. A. BYINGTON.— Johnson county's member of the 
House this time is a native of the county. O. A. Byington was 
born at Iowa City December i, 1859, ^^'^^l 
has lived there ever since. He went through 
the common schools of the city, then at- 
tended the State University, graduating from 
both the collegiate and law departments. 
With the exception of four years spent as 
superintendent of schools of Johnson county 
he has practiced the profession of law con- 
tinuously since leaving the university. Mr. 
Byington was married a few years ago to 
Miss Fannie Bremner. They have one 
child, LeGrand Byington, a little less than 
2 years of age. Mr. Byington belongs to 
the Masons, Knights of Pythias and Odd 
Fellows. He attends the Presbyterian church, although not a 
member. In pohtics he is a strong Democrat. He would like 
to see a license law enacted, and will vote to repeal the mulct law 
and against making a prohibition amendment to the constitution. 
This winter he will have to look after the interests of the State 
University in the House. As he is not only a graduate of that insti- 
tution, but a resident of the town in which it is situated as well, he 
is eminently qualified for that duty. Fie has been secretary of the 
Alumni Association of the State University for several years and 
is widely acquainted with graduates in the state. 

HON. W. B. CHAPMAN.— The Representative from Wood- 
bury county outside of Sioux City is the Hon. W. B. Chapman 
of Correctionville. He was born at Wayne, Ashtabula county, 
Ohio, November 18, 1854. His parents sent him first to the pub- 
lic schools and then to Hiram College in Ohio. On removing to 
Iowa they settled in the northwestern part of the state and con- 
tinued their son's education by sending him to the State Uni- 
versity at Iowa City. Farming life is the only one which has had 
any charms for Mr. Chapman. Out in the field and with the live 
stock he feels more satisfied than cramped up in the close quar- 
ters- of the town or city. Several times he has been tempted to 
lay aside the arduous duties of agriculture life, but the mere com- 
parison of the dull routine of the town with the free life, the grow- 
ing crops and broad fields of the country has always been enough 
to continue him at his post. There he will remain. Several 
times he has held local township offices, but his service in the 
Twenty-fifth General Assembly was his first venture into any- 
thing like official life which took him from home. ^Ir. Chapman 



84 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 



has ahvavs l^ecn a Republican. He belongs to the Knights of 
Pythias and attends the Unitarian church. In the last Legisla- 
ture he was chairman of the committee on woman suf^rage,^ and 
served as a member of the committees on agriculture, medicine 
and surgery, compensation of public of^cers, animal industry, 
public land's and buildings, judicial districts and police regula- 
tions. He is a liberal Republican on the liquor question and his 
course of two years ago will be continued this session. 

HON. ROBERT E. COOK.— ^fontgomery county is to be 

represented in the House this winter by the Hon. Robert E. Cook 

of Red Oak. He was born in Kewanee, 

Illinois, June Q, 1849. He lived there till 

El 1883. receiving his education in the public 
I schools. For the past twenty-live years Mr. 
' Cook has been engaged in the manufacture 
of brick and drain tile. He has been mar- 
ried twice, his second wife being Isabel A. 
Mallory. He is the father of five children. 
He belongs to the Knights of Pythias, has 
been chancellor commander and was repre- 
sentative to the last grand lodge. He at- 
tends the Congregational church. In poli- 
tics he has always been a working Repub- 
lican, serving at the present time as chairman 
of the county central committee. He will vote for a resubmis- 
sion of the prohibition question in the House this winter. 



HON. \\'. W. CORNWALL.— W. W. Cornwall. Representa- 
tive from Clay county, was born in Albion, Dane county, Wiscon- 
sin, February 10, 1857. He is a graduate of 

Alliion Academy at Albion, Wisconsin, with 

the degree of Ph. B., and of the department 
of law of the L^niversity of Wisconsin. He 
was also for about a year a student in Alfred 
University at Alfred, New York. After leav- 
ing the law school he found himself not only 
without funds to commence the law practice 
l:»ut in debt for his schooling, and for a year 
afterwards kept books and served as a pay- 
master for a lumber company in Juneau 
county, Wisconsin. From there he went to 
Huron, South Dakota, in 1882, and opened 
a law office in company with B. C. Lament, 
a member of his law class at the university. In 1884, at the or- 
ganization of AlcPherson county, South Dakota, he was ap- 
pointed county judge, and held the office two years, when he was 
elected county attorney for the term — two years. Before the ex- 




THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 85 

piration of his term as county attorney he was chosen chairman of 
the board of supervisors, which position he held for three years. 
In March, 1891, he purchased a haU' interest in the law practice 
of W. P. Ward, a practicing attorney at Spencer, and in the 
spring of 1892 was elected city attorney. This partnership existed 
until July, 1894, when Mr. Ward sold his interest in the business 
to Guy H. Martin, and the partnership of Cornwall & Martin was 
formed. ]\Ir. Martin is county attorney and the firm are at the 
front in the trial of cases and general law practice. Mr. Corn- 
wall is a member of the Iowa Legion of Honor and of the 
Odd Fellows. During the campaign of 1893 Mr. Cornwall 
made about twenty speeches in his district, and his popularity is 
attested by the fact that he ran ahead of his ticket in both Clay and 
Palo Alto counties. He was married September 29, 1885, to Miss 
Marion Wilson, of Blue Earth City, Minnesota, and enjoys the 
society of a cheerful and intelligent wife together with four bright 
and happy children in their home at Spencer. His record in the 
last General Assembly was such that he had no opposition for 
the nomination this time. He was chairman of the committee on 
constitutional amendments, and was a member of the committees 
on judiciary, claims, insurance, state university, military, public 
libraries, judicial districts, and representative districts. 

PION. W^ G. CROW. — Wapello county Republicans selected 
a winner in their candidate for Representative in 1893. They 
chose a man from the more secluded ways of 
life and when the returns were in they found 
that W. G. Crow was to represent them in the 
House. Mr. Crow was born in Jefferson 
county, eastern Tennessee, July 20, 1837. 
His parents moved to Iowa while their boy 
was still young, and gave him a common 
1^^^ school education. Among the Iowa troops 

jrf ' ' s -^i^^Hbi ^|-j^|- went with Sherman to the sea was Com- 
JK^. -^HHp pany D, 6th Iowa Infantry. W. G. Crow was 
M I H^P ^'^^ a private in that company. At the battle of 

'. ^^f^ Kenesaw mountain he received a wound, but 

that did not keep him from continuing on 
that glorious march. On returning from the 
campaigns in the south he learned the blacksmith trade and also 
became a locomotive engineer. He followed the latter calling for 
eleven years on the Rock Island road. On retiring from that Mr. 
Crow went into the mercantile business. He has now discon- 
tinued that and is farming on a small scale. He has always been 
an ardent Republican. He is a member of the Odd Fellows. His 
parents trained him up in the Methodist church, and he has not 
departed from the faith. In the House two years ago he was 
chairman of the committee on fish and game, and served on the 




86 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

committees on school for the deaf, retrenchment and reform, com- 
pensation of pubHc offtcers, board of pubUc charities, horticulture, 
judicial districts, representative districts. 

HON. CASSIUS C. DOWELL.— It always falls to the lot of 
the city member of the House from Polk county to attend to more 
municipal legislation than any other man in 
that body. He represents the largest city in 
the state, liis constituents are where they can 
reach him daily, and there are numberless 
subjects which they think can be remedied 
by an act of the Legislature. So he is 
deluged with bills, and when the session 
closes the journal generally shows that he has 
introduced more measures than any other 
man on the floor. In the Twenty-sixth Gen- 
eral Assembly the man to do this work is the 
Hon. Cassius C. Do well. He was born on a 
farm in Warren county, this state, February 
2C), 1864. His parents came to Iowa in 1845 
and located in \\'arren county. Cassius was sent to the common 
schools of liis neighborhood, then to the Baptist College at Des 
Aloines for a year, tried Simpson College at Indianola for another 
year, and finally settled down to complete his education at Drake 
University, Des Aloines. From this institution he graduated in 
both the collegiate and law departments, receiving the degrees of 
R. Ph. and LL. I>. He was admitted to the bar in 1888, and im- 
mediately entered the practice of law in Des Aloines and for the 
past six years has been in active practice. For two years, from 
1892 to 1894, he was assistant county attorney of Polk county. He 
is now a member of the law firm of Dowell & Parrish. The oflfice 
of Representative is the first public position to which he has been 
elected. His work proved so satisfactory to the people of his 
county that he was returned to the Twenty-sixth General Assem- 
bly with a flattering majority. He is a member of three secret 
orders, the Alasonic, Knights of Pythias and the Odd Fellows. 
Personally he is a very agreeable young man. In business rela- 
tions he is prom])t in attending to whatever is intrusted to him. 
He is unmarried. 

HOX. JOHN P.. CLASSFX.— John V>. Classen is the member 
of the House from Alarshall county. He was born in Germany 
in 1846 and came to Illinois as a child with his parents. For the 
past twent\-nine years he has been a resident of Iowa and Mar- 
shall county, ^^^^i]e living near Prairieville, Illinois, he attended 
the public schools, then returned to farm work, which has ever 
since occupied his attention. He served in the late war as a mem- 
ber of Company D. 34th Illinois Infantry. He was married in 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 



87 



early life to Miss Almira E. Messenger. They have one daugh- 
ter, Belle A. Classen. To keep alive memories of the time spent 
in the arm\' he has joined the G. A. R. Mr. Classen has always 
been a Republican and has held a number of township offices. 
He attends the Conereg-ational church. 



tC 



HON. O. E. DOUBLED AY.— The senior member of the 

House from Polk county is th? Hon. O. E. Doubleday, of Elkhart. 

He was born in Tippecanoe county, Indiana, 

February 22, 1831. His parents lived on a 

farm and his boyhood was passed amid rus- 
tic surroundings. The schools of his 
county were open to him, and after learning 
all they had to teach he went to Wabash 
Wi,, ,' College for one year, after which he returned 

^^^y'^ to the farm. Many years ago he came to 

^^^■j^jBjij^ Iowa and settled on the prairie in Douglas 
|^H^^HH| township, Polk county, where he has since 
H^^^jHbHb resided. He was selected by the Republic- 
B^^H^^^Hj ans of Elkhart township as a candidate for 
^^^^B^^^^Ml nomination for the ofifice of Representative, 
■ subject to the decision of the county conven- 
tion in 1893. He was elected and this fall placed in the same posi- 
tion again. Mr. Doubleday has been a Republican from the days 
of the earliest history of the party. As senior member from Polk 
county it is his duty to call the House to order on the morning 
of the first day, and he will perform the duty for the second time 
at the opening- of the Twenty-sixth General Assembly. 

HON. CHARLES LEE EARLY.— One of the younger men 
in the House two years ago was the Hon.- C. L. Early, of Sac 
county. He was born on a farm in Brown 
county, Ohio, July 27, 1854, which is the resi- 
dence of his father at the present time. 
^rm. After going through the district schools Mr. 
^"^ . Early attended Normal school at Bentonville, 
|| J* *t Ohio, and all the schooling that he obtained 
i" 'jj. subsequently was one term in the prepara- 
■ -^^ ^Qj-y department of the Ohio Wesleyan Uni- 
^gg^ll^^^^ versity. Until 19 years of age he remained on 
^HH|r^^^H the farm. Then he began teaching. Three 
^^^^MHHf years of Ohio experience gave him the cour- 
^^^^^ age to venture westward. During the winter 

— — of 1876 he was at work teaching, but the 

next spring entered the Sac County bank, 
where he remained for two years as cashier. From 1879 ^o 1883 
he was deputy county treasurer of Sac county, and on leav- 
ing that office he went into the real estate and loan business, under 



88 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

the firm name of Sciialler & Early. In 1889 he again entered 
pubHc office as county clerk of Sac county. He served two terms 
in this capacity, which brought him down to 1893. He was then 
selected by the Republicans to run for the Legislature and was 
easily elected. He has always been a Republican. During the 
last two years he has been chairman of the Republican county 
central committee. Mr. Early has attained prominence in other 
circles than politics. Being a member of the Masonic order he 
has been chosen H. P. of Darius chapter, No. 58, R. A. M., and 
E. C. of Rose Croix commandery. No. 38, K. T., of Sac City. He 
is also a member of the Knights of Pythias. In the Twenty-fifth 
General Assembly he was a member of the committees on normal 
schools, federal relations, penitentiaries, police regulations. Repre- 
sentative districts, rules and pharmacy. In all of them he did 
good work. He was married to Agnes Waddell June 28. 1888, 
and they have .two daughters: Ruth, aged 5 years, and Esther, 
aged 3 years. He was elected to the Twenty-sixth General Assem- 
bly by an increased majority. 



HON M. J. DAVIS.— Dr. M. j. Davis was born in Pennsyl- 
vania in 1837. As a boy he attended Airy View Academy in his 
native state, and to gain his medical educa- 
tion he went to the University of New York. 
There was a great demand for doctors at the 
front during the war and Dr. Davis was 
among those who braved the hardships of 
army life and worked so valiantly in reliev- 
ing the sufferings of the wounded. He was 
acting assistant surgeon of the United States 
army, and surgeon in chief of the artillery 
brigade of the Second Corps, remaining in 
the service during the entire period of the 
war. Since then he has practiced medicine 
actively for twenty years, and now has a drug 
store at Lewis. For seventeen years he was 
postmaster at his home and for six years one of the board of med- 
ical examiners for the pension department. He has always been 
a Republican in politics. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity. 
Dr. Davis was married in 1865 to Miss Priscilla K. Shuman. ' 
They have three children : William B., Brodie B. and Charles P. 
Davis. In the Twenty-fifth General Assembly Dr. Davis was 
chairman of the committee on pharmacy. He succeeded in hav- 
ing several measures of special interest to the medical profession 
enacted into laws. He was an active worker also in the commit- 
tees on suppression of intemperance, medicine and surgery, print- 
ing, industrial schools, board of public charities, penitentiaries, 
congressional districts and schools and text books. 





THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 89 

HON. A. H. EDWARDS.— Abner H. Edwards, of Audubon, 
Representative from Audubon county, was born in Lamoille, 
Bureau county, Illinois, in September, 1846. 
He has made his home in three places, re- 
maining in his native town till he arrived at 
the age of 24, then spending ten years at Men- 
dota, and finally in 1885 removing to Audu- 
bon, his present home. With the exception 
of four years spent in running a grocery he 
has lived all his life on a farm. Mr. Edwards 
traces his ancestry back to the year 1630, 
when his people came to Massachusetts. He 
comes from an intensely patriotic race, his 
great-grandfather, Nehemiah Cleaveland, being a soldier in the 
Revolutionary war. In 1840 Mr. Edwards' father cast his first vote 
for Harrison and the next day started for Illinois, where he became 
one of the early settlers. With such ancestry to look back to he is 
naturally very much of an American and an active mover in all 
public afifairs. Mr. Edwards enlisted in the Union army at the 
age of 17 and served during the struggle as a member of Com- 
pany G, 139th Illinois Infantry. He has always been a Repub- 
lican. He is a member of Veritas lodge. No. 392, A. F. and A. M., 
and also of Allison post, No. 34, G. A. R., of which he is senior 
vice-commander. He attends the Presbyterian church. He was 
married in 1872 to Miss Alice Hoffman. They have one son, 
Burt A. Edwards, aged 21, residing at Austin, Illinois. 

HON. H. K. EVANS.— The member of the House from 
Wayne county, the Hon. Hiram Kinsman Evans, is one of the 
members who represents his native county in 
the highest law-making body of Iowa. He 
was born on a farm near Seymour, March 17, 
,^^ , 1863, and lived there till he was of age. His 

|Hw^ father, Hiram Evans, was one of the hard 

M^ ^^ workers for the Republican party in his local- 

^Bv ity, being twice nominated for Representa- 

^g^PP L | ^ tive and defeated by the overv.dielming Dem- 

^^ff~'"' ^^H' ocratic majorities that prevailed in those 
^^n_ ^^9 days. Mr. Evans received a good educa- 
tion, completing the common school course, 
graduating from the Allerton high school 
and from the law department of the State 
University at Iowa City. He has practiced 
law in Seymour for three years and in his present home town of 
Corydon for six years. While living in Seymour he was a mem- 
ber of the town council for two years. He has been town re- 
corder of Corydon for six years. In 1890 he was elected county 
attorney of Wayne county. He held the office two terms. The 



so 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 



Republicans wanted him to take a third term, c(jntrary to cus- 
tom and precedent, l)ut he decHned the honor. Mr. Tlvans was 
married in 1891 to ]\Iiss Harriet l^)elvel, daughter of H. \[. Belvel, 
the Des Moines newpaper correspondent. She is an attorney as 
well as her husband. In her examination for admission to prac- 
tice before the supreme court of the state she took high honors, 
standing' fifth in grade in a class of thirty-one. She was the only 
woman in the class and was the fourth woman in Iowa to he ad- 
mitted to the bar. Mr. and Mrs. Evans have one child, Portia, 
born May 2, 1895. The record made by Air. Evans in the various 
positions of trust he has held is one of which he may justly be 
proud. Always faithful to his party, he has tried and succeeded 
to make the administration of the duties imposed upon him a 
credit not only to himself but to the people who had confidence 
enough in his abilities to place him in positions of trust. He is a 
niend)er of the Masonic fraternity and l:)elong"s to the Methodist 
church. 

HON. PARLEY hTNCH.— Hon. Parley Einch is the member 

of the House from Humboldt county. He was born on a farm 

in r.radford county, Pennsylvania, Septem- 

ber 24, 1844. He attended the common 

schools in liradford county. L'ntil 25 years 
^11"^^ of age he lived on the farm, teaching school 

J^, ^ during the winter months in Pennsylvania 

^k"^*] and New York. During this time he read 

iUS& ^^^^'' ^^^ came west to Waterloo, Iowa, in 

^^H^R April, 1871, and in September following was 

^^^^i^^B^^ admitted to the bar. Next year he removed 
l|^^^^^^^B| to Springvale, now Humboldt, and began 
^^VHM^HpP life as a lawyer. He has remained there since. 
^^^^^ He was chosen mayor of Humboldt, the Re- 

publicans being his supporters for the posi- 
tion. He is a member of the Masonic order. 
Though not a member of any religious denomination he usually 
attends the Congregational church. He was a member of the 
House two years ago and sei-ved on the committees on judiciary, 
federal relations, banks and banking, agriculture, labor and pri- 
vate corporations. 



HON. JOHN ERAZEE.— Chickasaw county is generally Dem- 
ocratic, and in 1895 the hopes of that party were not disappointed. 
As their legislative candidate they put up the Hon. John Erazee, 
and he was elected. He was born in Clinton county, Indiana, 
February 5, 1841, and moved with his parents to Iowa at an early 
age. When he had completed the common-school course he went 
to the Upper Iowa University at Eayette. While a young man 
he taught school in the winter seasons for ten years. He has 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 91 

for some time devoted his attention exclusively to farming and 
stock-raising. He has held the positions o^ township assessor, 
treasurer of the school board and member of the board of super- 
visors of his county. In religious matters he prefers the Univer- 
salist church. On any partisan legislation he will stand by his 
Democratic brethren, but on other subjects he will be ready to 
co-operate with those who are working for the best interests of the 
state of Iowa. Two years ago he was a member of the House and 
served on the committees on claims, animal industries, board of 
public charities, engrossed bills, fish and game, public lands and 
buildings, mines and mining, medicine and surgery. 

HON. OLIVER H. FRINK.— Page county's Representative, 
the Hon. O. H. Frink, was born in Elkhart, Indiana, May 26, 1848. 
He spent the first six years of his life there, 
then for seventeen years was a resident of 
Kewanee, Illinois, and for the last twenty- 
five years has lived in Page county, Iowa. 
His education was obtained in the public 
schools at Kewanee. When a mere boy he 
«i entered the Union army, and served as a 

^^"' private in Compony A, 124th Illinois Infan- 

^g^^'* ■ . try. At the close of the war he entered upon 

^HH^^-. a mercantile career, which he followed until 

^^^■^fc^' 1870. When he moved to Page county he 

^^^^^- 1 took up the life of a farmer. This kept him 

busy till he was chosen by the Republicans 
to take care of the county treasury, f or the 
last six years he has held that position. In addition to this he 
has been in nearly all the township offices, and for a year and 
a half was postmaster at Bingham, Page county. He was mar- 
ried about the time he came to Iowa to Miss B. Ellen Minnick. 
They have eight children: Nettie, aged 24; Libbie, 22; Bertha, 
15; Mabel, 10; Grace, 12; Harvey, 8: Irene, 6; Warren, i. Mr. 
Frink has been a member of the G. A. R. for a long time and has 
held nearly all the offices in the gift of his post. He is now com- 
mander. He is a member of the Baptist church. This winter he 
will be one of those who will work to submit the question of pro- 
hibition to a direct vote of the people, and he will do his best to 
prevent a law being passed that will legalize the manufacture of 
licjuors in tlie state. 

HON. JAMES H. FUNK.— A long and honorable record of- 
public service is that of the Hon. James H. Funk, of Flardin 
county. He Ijegan life on a farm, having been born in Fair*ield 
count\'. Oh-'o, February 16, 1842. His parents, Abra^iani nnd Afar- 
garet Hutchinson Funk, moved to Livingston countv, Illinois, in 
184Q, and have since lived there on a farm. The boy was sent to 



92 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

the country schools in winter and kept at work in summer. When 
old enough he began the study of law and in 1871 was admitted 
to the Livingston county bar. He remained in active practice till 
1883, when he retired to a farm near D wight, Illinois, on account 
of failing health. While actively engaged in his profession he 
served two terms in the Illinois Legislature as a member of the 
House. In 1876 he was unanimously tendered the nomination 
for Senator from Livingston county by the Republicans, but he 
declined it on account of business. He was also county attorney 
for Livingston county from 1872 to 1876, and was city attorney 
of Odell, Illinois, for seven years. In 1890 he left his Illinois farm 
and came to Iowa, locating at Iowa Falls. He is an active cam- 
paigner. Every presidential year from 1864 down he has been 
in the field for the Republican nominee, mostly in Illinois, though 
he was in Michigan in 1888, Iowa and South Dakota in 1892. Be- 
sides this he has always taken an active part in state campaigns. 
He is a member of the Masons and Odd Fellows. He attends 
the L^niversalist church. He is a very large land owner and is 
engaged in farming. Two years ago he was chairman of the 
House committee on the suppression of intemperance, taking a 
very active and influential part in the enactment of legislation on 
that subject. He also served on the committees on animal indus- 
try, private corporations, college for blind, woman suffrage, pub- 
lic lands and buildings, rules, medicine and surgery. Being bet- 
ter known this session he will be able to exert a more powerful 
influence in the House than before. 

HON. JACOB A. GARNER.— Alahaska county's member of 
the House has combined newspaper work and farming quite suc- 
cessfully during the course of his life. He 
was born on a farm in Davis county, Iowa, 
November 7, 1856. Five years later the fam- 
ily moved to Mahaska county, and there he 
grew up and attended school. In 1882 he 
went to Yankton, South Dakota, and began 
work in a printing office. Three years later 
he returned to the Mahaska county farm, 
which he left in 1892 to take charge of the 
Souvenir, published at Jefferson, Greene 
county. In 1894 he moved to his present 
home at New Sharon. He was married a 
number of years ago to Miss Josie Fortney, 
of West iVrginia. They have two boys: Jay 
McKinley, aged 2, and Baby Roy. He is a member of the Ma- 
sonic fraternity and attends the Methodist church. He has been 
quite prosperous so far as worldly goods are concerned, and now 
owns a farm of 160 acres in Hutchinson county, South Dakota; 
100 acres in Colfax county, Nebraska, and his home in New Sha- 




THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 93 

ron. He has always been a g"ood v/orker for the Repubhcan party. 
Both through the cohimns of the papers he has edited and on the 
stump he has done good work. In the last campaign the Demo- 
crats tried to capture the election by a still hunt, but he worked 
hard and had the satisfaction of being chosen by a plurality of 
1,480 votes. 

HON. J. L. GOOD. — Boone county has for her member of the 
House this winter the Hon. J. L. Good, of Boxholm. He is a 
Republican. 

HON. H. J. GRISWOLD.— From Buchanan county comes the 
Hon. H. J. Griswold as the member of the House. He is a native 
of Wisconsin, having been born at Janesville, November 13, 1858. 
His parents brought him to Iowa at an early age, and the greater 
part of his life was spent on the farm near Winthrop. He attended 
the schools there and gained a good education. For twenty-five 
years he attended to the duties on the farm and then as a longing 
for the town took possession of him he mioved to Winthrop and 
opened a store. In this business he has been engaged with suc- 
cess up to the present time. He has at various times held town- 
ship ofHces, but his first venture into a broader field of public 
action was his election to the House two years ago. He served 
his constituents faithfully and was sent to Des Moines again this 
winter. His work two years ago was done in the following com- 
mittees: Medicine and surgery, hospitals for the insane, com- 
pensation of public officers, state university, woman suffrage, 
police regulations, military, public library. 

HON. JOHN F. GROTE.— One of the liberal RepubHcans in 
the House this winter is the Hon. John F. Grote of West Side, 
representing Crawford county. The plat- 
form upon which he was nominated and 
elected declared, "If the stufif can be sold, let 
it be manufactured in Iowa." That is the way 
he will vote. He was born in Hamburg, 
Germany, April 20, 1852. His education was 
gained in the old country. Coming to Amer- 
ica at the age of 18 he stopped first at Clin- 
ton, Iowa, for twelve years. For the past 
thirteen years he has been conducting a dry 
goods and general merchandise store at West 
Side, which business he began at Clinton. 
While living at Clinton he was married to 
Miss Belle E. Jefifries. They have three 
daughters: A. Blanche, aged 19; Mabelle L., 16, 'and Edith E.. 
12. He is identified with several of the secret orders, being a 
member of the A. O. U. W., Modern Woodmen, in which he has 




94 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

been a representative in the grand lodge ; Knights of Pythias, rep- 
resenting his local lodge in the grand lodge for the past ten years, 
and in Masonic circles he is nnmbered among the Knights Tem- 
plar and jMystic Shriners. He belongs to the Episcopal church. 
In politics he has always been a Republican. He has been a mem- 
ber of the town council and has served on the school board. 
Crawford county is generally Democratic, but so well does Mr. 
Grote stand in the estimation of his neighbors that he was enabled 
to overcome the majority that ordinarily piles up against the Re- 
publican candidate, and he was elected to represent them this 
winter. 

HOX. Z. H. CxURLEY.— The member of the House from De- 
catur comity is the Hon. Z. H. Gurley, of Lamoni. He was born 
in Hancock county, Illinois. February 24, 
1842, and is the fourth son of Elder Zenas H. 
and Margaret Gurley. In childhood he 
moved with his parents to Jo Daviess coun- 
ty, from there into Lafayette county, and 
some years later returned to Illinois, set- 
tling in Knox county. He received his edu- 
cation in the conmion schools of Illinois and 
Wisconsin, but being studious he has picked 
up under the pressure of necessity consider- 
able information, and n;ay well be termed a 
self-made man. He was raised a Democrat, 
and was, like Douglas, a warm supporter of 
the war, after which tin;e he remained inde- 
pendent and mingled little in politics. In 1880 he l)ecame fullv 
identified with the Republican party. He came to Iowa in 1870. 
He was married to Miss Grace Robinson. They have five girls 
and two bo\s all living. Previous to being elected a member of 
the Twent\-fift]i General Assembly he had not held any public 
office except that of assessor and member of the school board. He 
was ordained a minister in 1871, and subsequently through force 
of circumstances became engaged in the Avar against the '"twin 
relic" in Utah. He worked three months at Washington for the 
passage of the Edmunds anti-polygamy bill and now enjoys the 
satisfaction of seeing that the Utah church has publicly renounced 
that dogma, and accepted the law. By reason of this he believes 
Utah gained statehood. In religion he is a Protestan*, broad 
and liberal. He is a member of the Masonic fraternitv. In the 
last House he was a member of the committees on retrenchment 
and reform, school for the deaf, institution for feeble-minded, en- 
grossed bills, and chairman of the committee on.piil)lic charities. 
He did good work in committees and upon tlie floor of the House, 
and fully merits the compliment of a second term wliich his con- 
stituents have [jestowed upon him. 





THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 95 

HON. G. N. HAUGEN. — One of the young-er members of the 
House is the Hon. G. N. Haugen, of Worth county, born in Rock 
county, Wisconsin. April 21, 1850. While 
he was very young he moved to Worth coun- 
ty and he went to school at Decorah, Iowa, 
afterward to the public schools and business 
college at Janesville, Wisconsin. In the lat- 
ter institution he gained the technical knowl- 
edge of accounts that has made him a valu- 
able man in Worth county affairs ever since. 
After his schooling was finished he returned 
to farming, which he followed for a few years. 
Then he opened a hardware store at Kensett 
and by strict attention to the wants of his 
customers he built up a very good trade. It 
was not long until he added agricultural im- 
plements to his stock in trade and soon after he was dealing in 
fine horses, importing most of them. During this time he was 
elected to various township offices, in all of which he served faith- 
fully. In 1884 he was nominated by the Republicans of Worth 
county for the position of county treasurer. In the election he was 
easily the victor. Twice he was elected to succeed himself, his 
last term ending with the close of 1893. In the fall of that year he 
was elected to the Legislature. He was a member of the com- 
mittees on municipal corporations, printing, state university, in- 
dustrial schools and Congressional districts. He worked faith- 
fully and had no opposition for renomination and of course he 
was elected without much trouble. In conclusion it may be added 
that at the present time Mr. Haugen is largely interested in real es- 
tate transactions throughout northern Iowa, Minnesota, and the 
Dakotas. He is also farming one of the finest tracts of land in 
Worth county, importing and breeding horses, and is president 
of the Northwood Banking Company, an institution that enjoys 
a reputation second to none. 

HON. STEPHEN N. HINMAN.— From Wright county to 
the House comes the Hon. Stephen N. Hinman, of Belmond. born 
in Vermont, in December, 1839. When a boy he was sent to the 
common schools and to the Derby Seminary, Vermont. A'ery 
early he was among the soldiers in the civil war, as he enlisted 
as a private in Company A, ist Connecticut Cavalry, in October, 
1861. When discharged in August, 1865, he was serving as lieu- 
tenant and aide de camp in the ist Brigade of the 3d Cavalry Di- 
vision of the Army of the Potomac, being under the immediate 
command of the dashing General Custer. Coming to Iowa at the 
close of the war he bought a farm in Wright county and has lived 
there since. He is a member of the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, and is a deacon in the Congregational church. Al- 



96 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

ways Repn]:)lican in politics, he has voted and worked for the suc- 
cess of the party without seekinp: honors for himself. After being 
nominated for Representative in 1893 he was easily elected. 
There are several subjects on which' he would like to see the laws 
of the state changed for the better, viz.: banking, prohibition, as- 
sessments and the revenue laws; he is also an advocate of good 
roads and wall do what he can to bring about a change in the 
present system of caring for the highways of the state. He was 
chairman' of the House committee on pardons during the last ses- 
ncn of the Legislature, and also worked in the committees on ani- 
mal industry, industrial schools, labor, horticulture and agricul- 
ture. His renomination and election came as a matter of course 
after he had done such good work in the House as he did two 
years aao. 



\m 



WHLIAM E. HAGER (H AUGER) .—William E. Hager 

was born in Washington. Tazewell county, Illinois. March 9, 

1866. His parents moved to Black Hawk 

county. Iowa, when he was six weeks old. 

He resided on the farm for fourteen years. 
In 1880 his parents moved to Laporte City, 
Iowa, and he entered the high school, from 
which he graduated in 1883, at the age of 17 
years. Immediately after graduating he com- 
menced teaching school and taught one year. 
In 1884 he entered school at Cornell Col- 
lege, Mt. Vernon, Iowa, and graduated in 
1888 in the classical and normal courses, re- 
ceiving the degree of A. B. In 1888 Mr. 
Hager passed the state examination and re- 
ceived a state certificate. He was principal 
of the Laporte City schools in 1889-90, but was compelled to re- 
sign the position on account of ill health. The classes of '89 and 
'90 graduated under his supervision. In 1891-92 he was one of 
the teachers employed in the Waterloo Collegiate Institute and 
Commercial College, and was eminently successful in the work. 
He subsequently read law for one year, but ill health interfered 
with his continuing the study. In 1893 his Cornell alma mater 
conferred upon him the master degree of A. M. on work per- 
formed. Prof. Hager has attained considerable prominence as a 
writer. His book, "Signal Thoughts," written and published by 
him in the winter of 1893. was well received and highly indorsed. 
Owing to impaired health, brought about by too close applica- 
tion to study and educational work, he has not been actively 
engaged during the past two years, but his enforced vacation has 
enabled him to acquire the much needed recuperation and he is 
now ready to resume work. He has been in the lecture field 
some. Being a close analytical, logical and psychological thinker, 




THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 97 

he has much strength as a pvibhc speaker, magnetic in flow of hfc, 
strong in thought and irresistible in conclusions. 

HON. JAMES B. HAZEN.— The elder of Lee county's Dem- 
ocratic members of the House is the Hon. James B. Hazen, of 
West Point. He was born in Beaver county, 
Pennsylvania, May 25, 1827. As a boy he 
attended the schools of his native state, then 
jW^- pursued the occupation of farming. In 1866 

^^ ^ he came to Lee county, Iowa, located on a 

I^T^^ ' farm, and has remained there ever since. He 

^^ " ■ was married as a young man to Miss Emily 

Severns. Their life has been long, happy 
and prosperous. Five children have been 
born tO' them, of whom four are living. They 
are: Susannah, Eliza, Samuel and Hervey 
Hazen. Mr. Hazen has always been a Dem- 
ocrat. He has held a number of township 
offices, but has not mixed in politics to any 
great extent. He would like to see a judicious license law en- 
acted by the Legislature this winter. He is a member of the Bap- 
tist church. Mr. Hazen possesses the valuable cjuality of being 
able to keep his eyes open and mouth shut, taking advantage of 
what he observes going on around him. By careful management 
and industry he has saved enough to fit up a model farm and 
home, and has enough besides to keep him in comfort. Such 
men of ripe experience and judgment are valuable in the Legisla- 
tive halls of the state. 

HON. I. B. HENDERSHOT.— Marion county has a Repub- 
lican member of the House this winter. Hon. I. B. Hendershot, 
of Otley, is the man who was elected. 

HON. R. W. HINKHOUSE.— Cedar county remained in the 
Democratic ranks this fall, by electing the Hon. R. W. Hinkhouse, 
of Tipton, as a member of the House in the Twenty-sixth Gen- 
eral Assembly. 

HON. WILLIAM B. HUNT.— The Democratic member of 
the House from Des Moines county is the Hon. W. B. Hunt, of 
Burlington. He was born in Des Moines county, October 4, 1857, 
and has lived on a farm near Burlington all his life, with the ex- 
ception of one year in the city. He received his education in 
the Burlington public schools and colleges. He was married 
about ten years ago to JMiss Alice M. Stewart. They have two 
daughters, Clara Louise, aged 8, and Llelen, aged 5. He is a 
member of Grace M. E. church, at Burlington. Mr. Hunt has 
never been an officeholder or seeker in any sense of the word, but 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 




for all that he has been an active worker for the success of the 
Democratic party all his life. He owns a large farm near town 
and commands the respect of all the people who know him. 

HON. L. S. HUNTLEY.— One of the New England men in 
the House this winter is Captain E. S. Huntley, of Chariton, rep- 
resenting lAicas county. He was born in 
Charlestown, Sullivan county, New Hamp- 
shire, November 27, 1838. During his boy- 
hood he attended the schools of his native 
county, and when the family moved to Ohio 
he pursued his studies in Galena. He en- 
listed in the Union army August 6, 1862, as 
a private. He successively won promotion 
till in October, 1864, he was made captain. 
Mr. Huntley was married to Miss 'Slary E. 
Allen, and they have four children: Clark W., 
aged 28; Edith J. (Brewer), 24; Frank S., 21, 
and Mae E., 18.' He belongs to the Odd Fel- 
lows and the G. A. R. He attends the Meth- 
odist church. The revenue laws have been a matter of consider- 
able study to him and he will take a special interest in all meas- 
ures afifecting them this winter. 

HON. ALBERT E. JACKSON.— Tama county this winter 
has a Democrat in the House, the Hon. Albert E. Jackson, of 
Tama. He was born in Wabash, Lidiana, September 23, i860. 
Two years later the family moved to Tama, Iowa, which has been 
his home ever since, with the exception of one year spent in Col- 
orado. He was educated in the Tama schools and the Iowa State 
University. During 1882 he was deputy county recorder, the 
next two years were spent in school teaching, and afterward he 
was dealing in live stock for a couple of years. During Cleve- 
land's first administration he was a railway postal clerk. Since 
1889 he has been in the banking business as cashier of tlie Farm- 
ers' and Merchants' Bank of Tama. December 21, 1886, he was 
married to Miss Mabel Bowen, of Marshalltown. They have 
three children: Helen Hunt Jackson, aged 6; Marjorie, aged 
3; Eloise, aged 15 months. Mr. Jackson belongs to the Knights 
of Pythias and the Masons. He attends the Baptist church. In 
politics he has always been an active Democrat, and he stood well 
with his party. He made the race for county superintendent of 
schools at a time when the county was 600 Republican and was 
defeated by only nine votes. He has served as deputy county re- 
corder, township clerk, city treasurer and school treasurer. This 
winter he will stand with his fellow Democrats on the liquor ques- 
tion, trying to get a license law enacted and permission gained to 
manufacture liquors in the state. 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OB^ 1896. 



99 



HON. JOHN T. JAY.— Carroll county ^Yellt Democratic thio 
fall and elected the Hon. John T. Jay of Manning to the House. 
He was born in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, April 19, 
1850. While living- there he attended Howe's 
Academy and received a good education. In 
1868 he went to Audubon and made that 
place his home for six years. For the past 
eleven 3'ears he has lived at Manning. Most 
of his life since leaving Henry county has 
been spent in conducting a clothing busi- 
ness, although for five years he was a school 
teacher. He belongs to the Odd Fellows and 
Knights of Pythias. He has not aspired to 
office to any great extent, but has been a 
member of the town council of ^Manning. He 
will do his best to have a license law enacted 
this winter for the control of the liquor traffic. Mr. Jay is mar- 
ried, his wife's maiden name being Anna M. Dollner. 





HON. C. F. JOHNSTON.— For the first time in the history of 
Franklin county, a native of the county will represent its people 
in the House. It is the Hon. C. F. Johns- 
ton, of Sheffield, Iowa, who has that lionor. 
He was born and raised on his father's home- 
stead, two miles east of Hampton, on Janu- 
ary 17, 1866, being the next youngest of six 
brothers, the family consisting of six boys 
and one daughter. His father is a native of 
Ireland and his mother was born in Ohio of 
Scotch parents. The father located on his 
homestead in 1855, taking it up as govern- 
ment land. The place has been occupied by 
some member of the family ever since. As 
a boy Fred attended country school, then 
the schools at Hampton, graduating from 
the high school in 1887. He spent two winters teaching country 
school and by working in other ways managed to get enough 
money to pursue law studies. He put in some time at the law 
department of the State University at Iowa City and was admitted 
in October, 1891, as an attornev- His business career began with 
opening a general office at Sheffield, September 26, 1888. Two 
years later he formed a partnership with his vounger brother, 
George A. For one year he was a partner of J. W. Luke, at 
Hampton, Iowa, during the time Mr. Luke was a'member of the 
railway commission of the state. He has now a flourishing law, 
real estate and loan business at Sheffield. June 29, 1892, he was 
married to Emma Delle Hacker, also a native of Franklin county. 
They have one son, Charles Frederic Johnston, Jr., born January 



100 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 




i, 1895. ^Ir. Johnston has always been very active in Republican 
circles. He was elected mayor of Sheffield in 1890, and at that 
time was the youngest man in the .state holding- the position of 
chief magistrate of a city. He served two terms as mayor. Is 
also now a member of the town council. He is a member of the 
Knights of Pythias and has held several high offices in the gift 
of the order. He belongs to the Methodist church. As he has 
always shown himself to be a practical man he will make a good 
w^orking member of the Iowa General Assembly. 

HON. JONAS P. JOHNSON— A native of Sweden, is the 
member of the liouse from Webster county. He was born in 
Stockaryd, Sweden, September 23, 1846, and 
came to this country in the spring of 1861. 
After spending six years in Henry county, 
Illinois, he moved to l)Oone county, Iowa, 
where he remained till 1885. He then set- 
tled in Gowrie, Webster county, where he 
now lives. Both in the old country and in 
Illinois he attended the public schools. He 
worked at farming till he moved to Gowrie, 
and then went into the general merchandise 
business. In 1891 he sold out and has since 
been engaged in the land and loan business. 
He was married twenty-six years ago to Miss 
Mary Larson, who was born in Andover, 
Henry county, Illinois. They have six children: Theodore, aged 
21; Carrie M., 19; Elmer S., 17; Henry W., 15; Vina A.. 12; Lily 
A., 7. Mr. Johnson has always been a Republican and has held 
various town and township offices. He attends the Lutheran 
church. 

HON. W. H. KLEAlAfE. — Meritorious service in the last 
House sends the Hon. W. H. Klemme, of Ridgeway, to Des 
Moines again this winter. He was born in 
Franklin county. Indiana, February 17, 1849. 
When he was 13 years old his parents came 
to Iowa, and in 1862 made government entry 
of a farm near Ridgeway, of wdiich the senior 
Klemme yet remains the owner. On this the 
subject of our sketch learned what the hard 
work as well as the independence of a farm- 
er's life is. When he attained his majority he 
started in as a farmer upon his own account ; 
Init soon after this the railway came along, 
made a station at Ridgeway, and Mr. 
Klemme seeing a business opening at that 
station, engaged in the lumber trade. This 
occupation he has followed for twenty-two years, and if it has not 




THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 101 

given him wealth it has furnished him the comforts of a moderate 
competence. During- this time h.e has held numerous local of^ces, 
such as postmaster, justice of the peace. In the latter ofBce he 
has served twelve years, and it is a matter of pride to him that his 
earnest endeavor is to act as a peace maker, and prevent litiga- 
tion rather than foment discord for fees' sake. In 1893 he was 
nominated for Representative and gained the election only after 
a hard fight. He served in the House as a member of the com- 
mittees on municipal corporations, private corporations, print- 
ing, school for the deaf, and labor. Mr. Klemme was married in 
1S70. 

HON. WILLIAM G. LADD.— Butler county's member of the 

House this winter is the Hon. William G. Ladd of Clarksville. 

He was born in Herkimer county, New 

York, in 1857, and lived there till 23 years 

of age. Since 1880 he has lived in Butler 

county, with the exception of one year spent 

0*_ ^ in South Dakota. Just before coming west 

H he taught school for four terms, and at 

^ ** " Clarksville he was principal of the schools 

*Wlt/ one year. Contracting and building is the 

^^mr^ k. occupation that now occupies his attention. 

flU ' •^ i l ff^ ' He was married a number of years ago to 

g^K~ ^^' Miss Lida E. Root. He is a member of the 

1^ ^ ' * Odd Fellows and has held a number of the 

' offices in the subordinate lodge. He attends 

the Christian church. In politics he has al- 
ways affiliated with the Republicans and by them has been elected 
to a number of mvmicipal offices. His most active service was 
given in support of D. B. Henderson, Congressman from the 
Third district last fall. 

HON. J. W. LAUDER.— Among the medical men in the 
Legislature is Dr. John W. Lauder of Afton, Union county. Her- 
kimer county. New York, was the place of his birth and 1850 
the year. While he Avas quite young his parents moved to Iowa, 
and after giving him all the advantages afforded by the district 
schools, sent him to the Iowa Wesleyan University at ]\Iount 
Pleasant. Subsequently he attended the State LTniversity at Iowa 
City and graduated from the medical department in 1874. He 
belongs to the Masons, and is also a member of the Phi Delta 
Theta college fraternity. He has always voted the Republican 
ticket. His record of two years ago was so good that he received 
renomination by acclamation, and was easily successful at the 
polls. In the last House he was chairman of the committee on 
medicine and surgery, and a member of the committees on rail- 
roads and commerce, suppression of intemperance, mines and 



102 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

mining, tclcgr.iplis, telephones and express, labor, penitentiaries, 
police regulations, and pharmac\'. 

HON. THOS. LA^I BERT.— The Democratic member from 
Jackson county is a man who wants to see purity in politics and is 
not afraid to condenm wrong methods even 
in his own party. He is a native of the 
county he represents, having been born in 
Sabula February 13, 1855, and lived there 
all his life. His education was gained in the 
l)ublic schools of the town. At present he 
is the editor and proprietor of the Sabula 
Jk Gazette, ]\liles Reporter and Preston Inde- 

4^''>jg ^ pendent, owns the ferry boat running be- 

sS^^^BpP^ tween Sabula and Savanna, Illinois, and 
^^nR' owns considerable agricultural land near Sa- 

"^^V"^ Inda. Mr. Lambert started in life by learn- 

ing the trades of stone mason and butcher, 
working at the former during the summer 
and the latter in the winter. He embarked in the newspaper 
business in 1880 and has made a success of it from the start. All 
his success has been gained by his own efforts. He was married, 
to Miss Jennie Cotton, and they have one child, Hazel C. Lam- 
bert, aged 6. Mr. Lambert served six successive years as mayor 
of Sabula and refused to hold the office any longer. He has been 
a justice of the peace, member of the school board, etc. He is a 
Democrat. Among the secret societies he is quite well known, 
having attained the thirty-second degree in Masonic circles, and 
has been master of his lodge for ten years. He has been chair- 
man of the conmiittee on chartered lodges in the Iowa grand 
lodge. He is also enrolled among the Shriners, Odd Fellows 
and Knights of Pythias. This winter he will work for the enact- 
ment of a license law among other things, and will favor the manu- 
facture of liquors in the state. 

HON. A. M. LOOAIIS.— The member of the House from 
Jones counrv is Captain A. M. Loomis of Wyoming. He was 
born in Jefferson county, New York, April 31, 1831, lived in 
Medina county. Ohio, from 1834 to 1856, and since then at his 
present home. He attended the common schools of Ohio, and 
also Oberlin College. In early life he learned the trade of shoe- 
making, which he followed for twelve years, then worked on a 
farm for five years, spent three years in the army, and has since 
the w-ar been in the mercantile business. Captain Loomis has 
been married twice, his first wife being Jane Briggs, the second 
Alice A. Spitzer. He has four children, all grown. Mr. Loomis 
enlisted in the Union army in August, 1862, and was made second 
lieutenant. When mustered out at the end of the war he held 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 103 

the rank of captain. In private life he has been honored by being 
chosen by the Republicans to fill a number of local offices, such 
as mayor, member of the town council, etc. He is also a trustee 
of Lenox College at Hopkinton. He voted for John C. Fremont 
in 1856, and has been an active Republican ever since. He has 
held all the positions within the gift of his local lodge of Odd 
Fellows. The Presbyterian church is the one to which he be- 
longs. This winter Mr. Loomis will take a special interest in all 
matters afifecting the benevolent institutions of the state, and will 
work to have better laws enacted for the permanent improvement 
of the highways. As for the liquor question, he thinks it is a 
matter that should be largely relegated to the moral and educa- 
tional forces. 

HON. J. F. LAVENDER.— The man to represent Calhoun 
county in the House this winter is the Hon. J. F. Lavender of 
Rockwell City. He is a man who has had 
an active and busy life thus far, and will carry 
into his Legislative work the same energy 
that has characterized his business career 
^^^ thus far. Born in Rochester, New Hamp- 

P ^« shire, March 24, 1851, he lived with his pa- 

rents until the spring of 1870. The family 
left New England in 1863, spent three years 
at Davenport, finally settled on a farm near 
i ' .^^^"'^^^ Brooklyn, where the father died in 1892, and 

T'^^B^^^" where the mother still resides. Mr. Laven- 
der attended the schools at Rochester. On 
coming to Iowa he attended the Davenport 
schools, and later spent a year at the State 
Agricultural College. From 1870 to 1875 he was in Davenport 
putting in the time teaching school, studying and reading law in 
the office of Cook, Richman & Bruning during vacations. In 
1875 he was elected principal of the schools of Le Claire, Iowa. 
After three years of service there he was elected to the principal- 
ship of the schools of Cordova, Illinois. All this time he con- 
tinued his law studies. In the summer of 1880 he went to Min- 
neapolis, took an examination and was admitted to the bar. Re- 
turning to Davenport, he worked for a year in the office of Brown 
& Campbell. His next move was to Rockwell City, where he 
has since remained. In 1885, finding his health impaired by con- 
finement of office work, he became a candidate for the position of 
county superintendent of schools, to which place he was elected 
twice. At the close of his second term he formed a law partner- 
ship with E. C. Stevenson, and the firm of Stevenson & Lavender 
still exists. During his service in the schools at Le Claire he was 
married to Miss Mary Davisson. They have five children, Fan- 
nie Slade, aged 11; Fabius Clarke, 8; Robert Alfred, 6; James 




104 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

Blaine, 4, and an infant daughter. He is a member of the follow- 
ing lodges: Rose Croix Commandery, No. 38, K. T., Sac City; 
El Kabir Temple Mystic Shriners, Cedar Rapids; Rockwell City 
Lodge No. 529, I. O. O. F., Forest Lodge 238, A. O. U. W., Lin- 
coln Camp No. 2522, Modern Woodmen of America. By reason 
of his varied experience he will make a valuable member of the 
House. 

HON. M. W. LEATHERS.— In the Harrison county Repre- 
sentative district the Republicans were divided by a county seat 
fight this fall and the Legislative candidate supported by them 
failed to win. The man elected was the Hon. A I. W. Leathers 
of ]\Iapleton. Democrat, endorsed by the Populists. 

HON. T. J. LOWRY.— Democratic Representative to the 
Legislature from Howard county, was born in Dearborn county. 
Indiana, in 1845. In 1857 his parents 
moved west and settled in Winneshiek 
county, Iowa, where they remained two 
years, moving into the adjoining county of 
Howard in 1859, where Mr. Lowry has ever 
since made his home. Mr. Lowry received 
a good common school educat'on, and in ad- 
dition spent a year at the Beloit Business 
College, Wisconsin. In the fall of 1866, just 
after attaining his majority, he started in the 
drug business at New Oregon, Howard 
county, where lie remained about a year, 
moving to Cresco in July, 1867, where he 
has carried on the drug and jewelry business 
since. He is an ardent Democrat and has spared neither time, 
labor nor money in the cause of his party. He was elected sheriff 
of Howard county in 1879 and re-elected in 1881 for a second 
term. He ran for the Legislature against Mr. Williams of Lime 
Springs, Howard county, in 1893, and was defeated by a small 
majority, the latter having promised that he would vote for high 
license. The records of the meeting of the last Legislature show 
that he did not do so. Mr. Lowry was elected this year by a plu- 
rality of 158 over his Republican opponent, Mr. J. Hendrix, and 
a majority of 58 over both the Republican and Prohibition candi- 
dates, at the same time that Drake, the Republican candidate for 
governor, received a majority of 200 in the county. This is in 
itself a sufficient proof of the high esteem in which Mr. Lowry is 
held by the people of Howard county, and also that Howard 
county is opposed to the present licjuor laws. ^Ir. Lowry is a 
member of the Masonic order and belongs to the Lutheran 
church. He has a family of four boys, the oldest of whom, Fred 
B., a graduate of the Iowa State University school of pharmacy. 




THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 105 

assists him in his business; two are attending school here, the re- 
maining one being too young to attend school. The legislation 
in which INIr. Lowry is particularly interested is the placing of the 
liquor traffic on a high license basis and the manufacture of it 
within the state. If there was any chance of electing a Demo- 
cratic United States Senator, Mr. Lowry, it is said, would be in 
favor of Horace Boies. 

HON. F. B. MANAHAN. — Francis Benedict Manahan was 
born in the old historic town of Prairie du Chien, Crawford 
county, Wisconsin, July 9, 1850. His father 
was a New Yorker by birth and his mother 
a Kentuckian with English ancestry. His 
father was engaged in the lumbering busi- 
ness, with mills at Chippewa City, in the 
northern part of the state, and was a member 
of the territorial Senate at the time said state 
was admitted into the Union, and to which 
office he was elected after said admission. 
The subject of this sketch became a raft 
pilot on the Mississippi river at the age of 15, 
and a steamboat pilot at the age of 18, in 
which pursuit his summers were employed 
until the railroads broke up the steamboat 
business. He was educated at Prairie du Chien College and 
Notre Dame University, taking the full classical course and gradu- 
ating with the degree of Ph. B. In 1870 he Avent to New York 
and engaged in newspaper work, furnishing feature articles for 
syndicates and metropolitan dailies, also magazine sketch articles. 
He came to Le Mars, Plymouth county, Iowa, in 1874, but did 
not locate there permanently until 1875. First engaged in the 
real estate and collection business and afterwards in abstracting, 
which vocation he now follows. During all these years he has 
kept up to a greater or less extent his literary work. In Novem- 
ber, 1886, was married to Nora E. Joyce at Cambridge City, In- 
diana, of which issue there are two boys, Ambrose B., aged 7, and 
Joseph Walter, aged 5. Has never held public office except that 
of assessor and city clerk, which latter position he now occupies 
for the city of Le Mars. Was also deputy clerk of courts of Ply- 
mouth county for eight years. Has always been identified with the 
Democratic party, and stumped the state of New York for Greeley 
at the time of his nomination for the presidency. He is past mas- 
ter of the A. O. U. W., member of the grand lodge of the state of 
Iowa, and supreme knight; also a member of the Independent 
Order of Foresters, and chief ranger of the local lodge. In re- 
ligion he is a Catholic, and is specially interested in legislation 
pertaining to the public schools and upon the liquor question. 
Choice for United States Senator, Horace Boies, of Waterloo. 



106 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

His position on liquor legislation is as follows: High license, local 
option, manufacturing in the state, and no resubmission. 

HON. CHRIS MARTI.— One of the Scott county Democrats 
this winter in the House is the Hon. Chris Marti of Long Grove, 
a man who has been seen in Legislative circles before. ]Mr. Marti 
was born in Switzerland May 27, 1845. When he was 6 years of 
age his parents came to America, and he has lived in Scott county 
ever since. He was raised on a farm, and still follows that calling. 
^Ir. Marti has been married twice. He has six children; George 
D.. aged 28; Howard B., 23; John S., 21 ; Delbert C, 7; Nelhe M., 
4; Annie T., 2. There are also two step-daughters, Jennie C. 
Xiel, aged 20, and Mary A. Niel, 18. Mr. ]\larti is a member of 
the Woodmen of the World. He belongs to the Christian church. 
He has been a Democrat ever since he voted for the first time in 
1867. The only public position he has held before has been the 
same as that which he now holds, member of the House from 
Scott county. He was a member in the Twenty-third and Twenty- 
fourth General Assemblies. He desires to see a local option law 
enacted this winter, with permission given for the manufacture 
of liquors in the state. 

HON. W. B. MARTIN.— W. B. Martin, Representative from 
Adair county, was born at Rochester, Windsor county, Vermont, 
March 17, 1846, and received his education 
in the schools of that town and in the Orange 
county grammar school at Randolph Center, 
A'ermont. At the outbreak of the war he 
offered himself for enlistment in Company 
h>. 4th A'ermont Infantry, but was sent back 
home on account of his youth, as he was 
only 16 years old at the time. Returning 
home he took up farming and school teach- 
ing. He came to Henry county, Illinois, in 
1867, and two years later he came to Adair 
county, Iowa, where he opened out a new 
farm and taught school. In 1873 he was 
chosen county auditor and again in 1875 
elected to the same position. On leaving the office he com- 
menced the real estate business and has followed that since. 
Three times he was elected mayor of Greenfield, and he has held 
several minor offices. He has always been a Republican. Mr. 
Martin belongs to the Masons and Odd Fellows and attends the 
Presbyterian church. In the last General Assembly Mr. Martin 
was chairman of the committee on elections. He took a very 
lively interest in the temperance question, and the present law 
regulating the liquor business in Iowa is called the Martin law 
from him. He also worked in the committees on wavs and means. 




THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 



107 



printing, agricultural college, domestic manufactures, peniten- 
tiaries, pardons, normal schools, banks and banking, and Repre- 
sentative districts. 




HON. S. W. MAYNE.— The Kossuth county Republicans 
were successful this year as heretofore in electing their candidate 
to the lower House of the General Assembly. The Hon. S. W. 
Mayne of Bancroft was the man selected. 

HON. WILLIAM H. M'ACHRAN.— WilHam H. McAchran 
is a son of Lieutenant S. G. McAchran and Sarah Lee McAchran. 
His father was a member of the state Senate 
in 1852. When the rebellion commenced he 
and all the members of his household that 
were old enough (six in all) volunteered. 
He died in the service. William H. was born 
at Shelbyville, Illinois, October 26, 1847, 
and was brought by his parents to Bloom- 
field, Iowa, when 7 months old. He has re- 
sided there since. He was educated in the 
public schools of that city. Farmed three 
years, and at the age of 18 entered the drug 
business, in which he is still engaged, being 
continuous in that line for twenty-nine years. 
In 1873 he was married to Miss Flora J. 
Clayton. They have two daughters, Mary and Ruth. Mr. Mc- 
Achran has always been a consistent Republican, never allowing 
side issues to draw him from the main principles of the party. 
He was never a candidate for ofhce before and is the first Repub- 
lican elected to the House from Davis county for twenty years. 

HON. FREEMAN M'CLELLAND, M. D.— One of the older 
members of the Republican party on the floor of the House this 
winter will be the Hon. Freeman McClel- 
land, M. D., of Cedar Rapids. He was born 
in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, No- 
vember 28, 1830. He lived in Pennsylvania 
twenty years, Indiana five years, Colorado 
two years, and has been a citizen of Iowa for 
thirty-four years. He received his education 
in Kittanning and Philadelphia. During 
the war he served as assistant surgeon of the 
1 6th Iowa Infantry. The hardships of the 
war so impaired his health that he aban- 
doned practice at the close of the war, and 
has since been editor of the Cedai Rapids 
Times. He was married while a voung man 
to Miss Mary E. Gardner. They have three children; Bertha 




108 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

Louise, aged 26; Clyde. 21, and Freeman. Jr.. 19. He belongs 
to the G. "a. R. and attends the Presbyterian church. In politics 
he has always been a Republican. The only office he has ever 
before held was that of visitor to' the hospitals for the insane, 
which place he held for six years. He will take a special interest 
in all matters affecting the charitable institutions of the state this 
winter. 

HON. WM. CORSE M'ARTHUR.— Des ^loines county has 
a Republican in the House this winter for the first time in a good 
many years. The Hon. Wm. Corse McAr- 
tluir is the man. He was born in Burling- 
ton julv 22, i860. That city has always been 
Ills home. Besides attending the Burling- 

fton schools he graduated in the class of '81 
of Cornell University at Ithaca, New York, 
and completed a course at the Columbia Law 
School. After leaving the law school he be- 
gan ])racticing in Burlington. He was mar- 
ried May I, 1882, to Harriet Grant Hanmer 
of Syracuse, New York. They have one 
child, Virginia Corse McArthur, aged 12. 
Air. McArthur is a member of the Royal 
Arcanum and attends the Episcopal church. 
When Governor Jackson made up his staff he appointed Air. Mc- 
Arthur lieutenant colonel. 

HON. AIICHAEL AI'DONALD.— Guthrie county's member 
of the House this winter is the Hon. Michael McDonald of Bay- 
ard. He was born in Ireland Julv 28, 1846, and the next year 
was brought lo this country by his parents. They lived at Lu- 
zerne, Pennsylvania, for nine years and then permanently located 
in Guthrie county. Here Michael grew up on a farm. He has 
been a farmer all his life. Though only a lad when the war broke 
out, he enlisted and served as a private in Company I, 29th Iowa 
Infantry. He was married to Eliza Jane Gaines, and they have 
four boys and four girls. Mr. McDonald was formerly a Green- 
backer, but when Cleveland made his famous flag order McDon- 
ald became a Republican, and has since remained true to the 
faith. He was sheriff of Guthrie county from 1871 to 1875, and 
was a member of the House in the Nineteenth General Assembly. 
Consec|uently he has some valuable experience to guide him in 
his work this winter. He is a member of the Odd Fellows and 
the G. A. R. 

HON. JAMES M'DO WELL.— Iowa county went Democratic 
the same as for years, and this fall elected the Hon. James Mc- 
Dowell of Greene Center as a member of the House. 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 



109 



HON. FRANCIS M'NULTY,, JR.— The subject of this sketch 
is his own biographer, and has no desire to go into the common- 
place details of birth, death, marriage or 
great deeds. Suffice it to say that his early 
boyhood was spent in Sanilac county, Michi- 
gan, where his family were early settlers, and 
where in summer and in winter he experi- 
enced the cool shades of the pine and the 
hemlock, as well as that of many other kinds 
of trees, and where through much difficulty 
J^^L ^ ^ib^*. ^^^ received his early training in the public 
^■■Bk mt^ schools. Not being charmed with the pros- 
^SHR'- ^^ pect of agricultural life, for Hke many others 
who afterwards proved to be poor farmers, 
he was born on the farm, yet managed to get 
out of it, and in the fall of 1886 entered the 
law department of the University of Michigan, with a view of 
cultivating the field of the law, from which he graduated with his 
class in June, 1888. It was known at that time that Horace 
Greely had been kind enough to proffer some advice to young 
men, and as the writer thought there might be something in it, 'he 
ventured as far as the banks of the Mississippi, casting his 
"shingle" to the windward in the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, where 
lie remained until the early spring of 1889. At that time he was 
offered special inducements to make the valley of the Missouri 
the basis of future operations and removed to Sioux City in April 
of that year, where he has since remained, doing whatever good 
came in his wav. 



HON. N. A. MERRELL.— The senior member of the House 
from Clinton county is the Hon. N. A. Merrell of De Witt. He 
is a man of ripe experience, an old line 
Democrat, and will be a power even if he is 
on the minority side. He was born in Co- 
penhagen, New York, June 26, 1829. He 
lived in New York until 1856, when he set- 
tled in Clinton county. He was married 
and has two daughters living. During war 
times he was one of the many noble Demo- 
crats who took up arms in defense of the 
Union. He served as captain of a company 
in the 26th Iowa Infantry. He has been in 
active practice of his profession, the law, for 
a long time. Always active in public af- 
fairs, he has been a member of the Legisla- 
ture several times before. From 1870 to 1884 he was in either 
one or the other branch of the General Assembly. He worked 
hard all the time to secure the enactment of a license law that 




no THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

would properly regulate the liquor traffic, and this winter he will 
be more than ever active in this direction. Besides this, he is 
very familiar with the laws as tliey stand on the statute books, 
having helped to make many of them, and his experience in this 
direction will be very valuable when it comes to acting on the re- 
port of the code commission. 

H(1X. FRANK F. MERRIAAL— The member ot the House 
from T^elaware county, the Hon. Frank F. Merriam of Hopkin- 
ton, is a new member, but one perfectly fa- 
mihar with legislative methods and work. 
He was born on a farm near Hopkinton De- 
cember 22, 1865, and has lived in the county 
almost continuously ever since. His parents 
||fc ^ ^ are Henry C. and Anna E. Merriam, who 

^^^ • now live at Coggon, Iowa. The father 

nH^< served in the Union army during the war of 

^J^m ^^ ^|-,g rebellion, first as a private and later as a 

^^^^^ Hj^ lieutenant in the 12th Iowa A'olunteers. 
^^^^^k^H| h^rank attended the graded schools at Hop- 
^^^^^H|^H kinton and finished of¥ with a course at 
' ^^^^^^^^^"' Lenox College, Hopkinton. For two years 
after graduating he held the position of prin- 
cipal of the Hopkinton schools, then filled the same place at Hes- 
per, Iowa. His last position in the public school service was as 
superintendent of the schools of Postville. Feeling that news- 
paper work would be more satisfactory and congenial, he pur- 
chased the Hopkinton Leader in 1893, since which time he has 
been conducting that journal. He was married July 10, 1889. to 
Miss Elnora Hitchcock of Scotch Grove. Iowa. They have one 
son living, F. Howard Merriam, aged 5. their second son, Robert 
M., dying in infancy. Mr. Alerriam's political preferences have 
always been with the Republican party. He spent one summer 
at the Republican headquarters during the first campaign under 
the leadership of J. E. Blythe. In 1892 he was clerk of the House 
appropriations committee, and in 1894 clerk of the Senate judi- 
ciary committee. During these two sessions he learned the ins 
and outs of Legislative circles, so that this winter he will be able 
to attend to the duties of Representative as easily as any old mem- 
ber of either branch of the Legislature. At home Mr. INIerriam 
stands well with the community. He is a deacon in the Presby- 
terian church and is a trustee of his alma mater, Lenox College. 

HON. B. M. M'QUIN.— From Benton county as Representa- 
tive in the Twenty-sixth General Assembly comes the Hon. Byron 
Marcellus McQuin. He was born in Pembroke, Washington 
county, Maine, September 24, 1848, and following the traditions 
of his native state he has always been a Republican. His parents 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. Ill 

were taken with the idea that the west afforded more opportuni- 
ties than the east, so they moved out to Iowa and took up their 
residence in Benton county. Here James McOuin was evidently 
a successful and popular man, for the records show he was a mem- 
ber of the Eighth General Assembly of Iowa in i860. Byron was 
sent to the public schools in Benton county, and after learning all 
he could there he attended the Agricultural College at Ames and 
JMcClain's Academy at Iowa City. After leaving school he spent 
a while in teaching and then went into the mercantile line as a 
clerk. Before long he was a proprietor of a store himself. Then 
he was appointed to the office of postmaster at Norway, which 
position he held for eight years. Since leaving that he has been 
in the grain and live stock business, and is now engaged in 
selling agricultural implements. In addition to the office of post- 
master he has been a justice of the peace and township clerk. 
The Republicans have always put him into these positions. Mr. 
]\IcOuin is a member of the Masons and Odd Fellows. In the 
last General Assembly Mr. McQuin was chairman of the commit- 
tee on Representative districts, and a member of the committees 
on agricultural college, domestic manufactures, military, printing 
and college for the blind. 

HON. JOHN MILLER.— The member elected from Warren 
county to the House of the Twenty-sixth General Assembly is the 
Hon. John Miller of Indianola, Republican. 

HON. DE WITT C. MILLER.— In the Hon. D. C. Miller, of 

Newell, Buena Vista county has a man of ripe experience for 

Representative in the Twenty-sixth General 

^ Assembly. He was born in Portage, Liv- 

|K, ■ ingston county. New York, November 27, 

■ p w 1828, and lived there till he was 20 years of 

^- , ^ age. From 1848 to 1875 he lived on a farm 

'*"^ near Rockford, Illinois; the next five years 

were spent in Rockford, and since 1880 he 
has lived at Newell, his present home. He 
received his education in the common 
schools of his native place. Until the last 
ten years he was engaged in farming. In 
1885 he went into the banking business un- 
der the firm name of JNIiller & Gordon, but 
it has since been changed to Miller & Cha- 
ncy. He was married over forty years ago to Miss Agnes B. 
Lawson. They have had a family of six daughters, all o'f whom 
are married now. Mr. Miller was a Democrat before the Re- 
publican party was born. He voted for Franklin Pierce in 1852. 
Four years later he changed and voted for John C. Fremont, and 
ever since he has pinned his faith to the Republican party, grow- 





112 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

ing up with it. He has not been an office-seeker in any sense of 
the word, and the only positions he has held have been purely 
local. He belongs to the Cong-reg-ational church. He is a Pro- 
hibitionist and would like to see the present mulct plan of con- 
trolling the liquor traffic given a fair trial. 

HON. WIREMAN MILLER.— Wireman Miller of Cherokee 
county has served two terms as a member of the House. In 
September, 1891, while he was at home and 
at work on the farm the Republican county 
convention nominated him as their candidate 
for Representative. It was a complete sur- 
prise to him, as he had not made the least 
effort to secure the office. He was elected 
by 150 majority. In 1893 he was renomi- 
nated after coming- out in the papers of the 
county in a letter stating he was not a can- 
didate for re-election, and was elected by 
6t2 plurality. His special achievements two 
years ago was the securing the location of 
the hospital for the insane in northwestern 
Iowa for Cherokee when five other towns 
were competing for the place. So satisfactory were his services 
to the people of his county that he comes for the third time to the 
lower House, an unusual honor. Mr. ]\Iiller was born in Bedford, 
county, Pennsylvania, in 1845, ^"^^^ moved to Iowa with his pa- 
rents in 1 85 1. He lived first in Muscatine county, then in Cedar 
county, alternately working the farm and attending school. He 
enlisted in Company D, nth Iowa Infantry, serving as a private; 
was mustered out at the close of the war. On returning home he 
took up farm life again. He was married September 6, 1866, to 
Miss Maggie E. Ledman. In March, 1870, they moved onto a 
homestead claim in Cherokee county, wdiere they have since re- 
sided. Mr. Aliller helped organize his township and cast the first 
vote polled there. Has held the offices of assessor fourteen years, 
township clerk ten years, township treasurer ten years. He is a 
Mason, belongs to the Modern Woodmen, and al^liates Avith the 
Methodist Episcopal church. 

HON. J. D. MORRISON.— Grundy county for the third time 
has elected the Hon. J. D. Morrison of Reinbeck as a member of 
the House. He was born in Pittsfield, Illinois, December 4, 
1850, attended the common schools of Adams county and after- 
ward took a business course in the Quincy, Illinois, College. P>e- 
ginning life for himself, he started as a teacher, then for eight 
years was bookkeeper and salesman in a grain and lumber firm, 
and more recently in the live stock trade. Prouglit up a Demo- 
crat, he voted that ticket the first time after he became of age. 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 113 

Since then he has cast his fortunes with the RepubHcan party. 
He belongs to the Odd Fellows. Two years ago he was a mem- 
ber of the committees on appropriations, normal schools, suppres- 
sion of intemperance, medicine and surgery, hospital for the in- 
sane, agricultural college, public libraries and judicial districts. 
The special committee to investigate and decide the election con- 
test from Jackson county had Mr. ^lorrison for its chairman. 
As a member of the subcommittee on the suppression of intem- 
perance he took an active part in framing the "Martin bill." Mr. 
■Morrison is a firm believer in the principle embodied in his "clul) 
room" bill, so-called, which was introduced during the last ses- 
sion, its object being to provide a means whereby the use of in- 
toxicants might be legally regulated and the element of profit 
eliminated by so far as possible substituting clubs for saloons. 
He is more than ever convinced that some modification of the 
idea contained in this bill will come nearer solving the vexed ques- 
tion than anything yet proposed. 

HON. JOHN MORRISON.— Keokuk county will be repre- 
sented in the House this winter by a Republican, the Hon. John 
Morrison of Hedrick. 

HON. WASHINGTON MULLIN.— -The Representative 
from Henry county this winter is the Hon. Washington MuUin 
of Winfield. He is a Republican. 

HON. HENRY J. NIETERT.— Linn county has for one of its 
members on the floor of the House the Hon. Henry J. Nietert of 
Walker. He was born March 12, 1848, at Dayton, Ohio. His 
parents came to Iowa about 1850 and lived on a farm first in 
Clayton, then in Delaware county. Henry was sent to school 
all the time they could spare him, and he gained a good educa- 
tion. With a pretty good knowledge of the world and lots of 
common sense, he took up his residence at Walker, in 1880. 
Since then he has been more instrumental than any one else in 
1:)uilding up the town. Previously he had been in the mercantile 
business elsewhere. Until 1885 ^^^ was in active charge of his 
store at Walker. Besides that he invested money in creameries 
in various parts of the county and worked hard to develop that 
branch of industry. When the town had enough business he or- 
ganized the Exchange Bank, and ever since then has devoted 
most of his time to it. He has been one of the prime factors in 
making Walker a leading business point in the county. In fur- 
nishing the farmers a market for their produce he has done them a 
great and lasting benefit. In addition to the bank he owns a large 
cold storage house and is an extensive shipper of eggs. He is 
a part owner in the creameries at Walken Center Point and Troy 
^lills. For three years he was postmaster at Walker. In poli- 



114 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

tics he has always been strongly Republican, and has worked 
hard for the success of the party. He is broad minded and liberal 
in his views. While tenacious of his own opinions, he is always 
ready and willing to give due consideration to what others may 
think. In the campaign of i88c; he was a candidate for Repre- 
sentative on the Republican ticket. The majority for LJoies for 
governor in the county was nearly 600. Mr. Nietert was de- 
feated by less than a hundred votes, running 500 ahead of the 
state ticket. He belongs to two secret orders, the Masons and 
Odd Fellows. He is a faithful attendant of the Alethodist church, 
being a member of that denomination at Walker. His nomina- 
tion and election in 1893 came to him as a very gratifying recog- 
nition of the work he has done for the party in the past. Two 
years ago he was a member of the committees on insurance, banks 
and banking, ])rivate corporations, roads and highways, agricul- 
tural college. He was renominated this fall without opposition 
and re-elected ])y a larger majority than two years ago. Mr. 
Nietert has lately been elected president of the Iowa State Dairy 
association. 

HOX. JOHX PARKER.— John Parker of Silver City, mem- 
ber of the Plouse from Mills county, was born in Lincolnshire, 
England, December 18, 1837. He remained in his native coun- 
try till 1857, when he came to America, settling in Clarion county, 
( )hio. Ten years later he came to Mills county, and there he has 
since remained. In the old country he gained a limited educa- 
tion, which he has since supplemented Ijy reading and private 
study. All his life has been spent on the farm, first as a laborer, 
and later as owner. He was married in 1861 to Miss M. L. John- 
son. They have had ten children, all of whom are still living. 
The\- are: Pllizabeth W., aged 33; Alice J., 31; Cora A., 29; 
Emma L., 27: Ida J., 25; Harry G., 22; Rosa M., 20; Howard R., 
18; Santford J., 15; John G., 13. Eor the past thirty-eight years 
Mr. Parker has been an active worker in the Republican ranks. 
During that time he has held the office of county commissioner. 
He is an Odd Fellow, has held all the offices within the gift of the 
subordinate lodge and has represented his district in the grand 
lodge. He is also well up in the Grange. He belong? to the 
Afethodist church. 

HOX. THOS. F. XOLAX.~Thc Dul)U(iue county member 
from outside the city is the Hon. Thos. F. Nolan. He was born 
in the latter part of December, 1838, in county Kilkenny, in the 
south of Ireland. When his parents emigrated to America he 
was a lad of 10 years, and of course accompanied them. They 
lived in W^smoreland county, Pennsylvania, for two years, but 
caught the western fever, then so strong in the east, and in the 
fall of 1850 came to Dubucjue. They lived in the city for a couple 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 115 

of 3^ears. The _vouiig- boy secured a position as office boy of the 
Express and Herald under the manag-ement of Alerritt & Jones. 
Young Nolan started his newspaper career as a carrier of the 
Herald. He afterward became a clerk in the business office and 
a collector around town. In 1854, when his father moved to 
\>rnon township, he went with him, and also after a few years 
to the farm in Table Mound township, where he has since lived. 
Being one of the energetic farmers of his section and always tak- 
ing an interest in public matters, it was but natural that his fel- 
low citizens should choose him to (hold various positions. He has 
held all the leading positions in his township, assessor, clerk and 
school director. Besides farming, Mr. Nol&n has occupied him- 
self with other matters and has dealt extensively in real estate in 
the south and west, making" various investments. For several 
years, with his brother, he owned a ranch on the Pacific coast, 
and after his brother's death he spent a couple of years out there 
taking care of it before disposing of it. He has traveled a great 
deal over the country and has rode on horseback from the state 
of Washington to Minnesota. Air. Nolan was married in 1869. 

HON. P. L. PRENTIS. — ^Ringgold county sends a young- 
man to the House this year in the Hon. P. L. Prentis, M. D., of 
Delphos. He is a young man who has made 
his own way in the world, and so far has 
been eminently successful. Dr. Prentis was 
born in a log cabin, on a farm, in Miami 
county, Indiana, July 28, 1870. In the fall 
of 1880 he came with his parents, in a lum- 
ber wagon, to Iowa, locating on a farm near 
Delphos. Four years later his parents died, 
making it necessary for him to go back to 
Ohio to live with relatives. While going to 
school he worked for money to pay his 
board, finally becoming, in 1888, an honored 
graduate of Bedford high school. Two 
years later he became a graduate of Euclid 
Business College, in Cleveland, Ohio. He then entered the Uni- 
versity of Medicine and Surgery in the same city, graduating- in 
1893 with high honors and receiving first prize for good scholar- 
ship. Inmiediately he returned to Delphos and commenced the 
practice of medicine. His first vote was cast for Wm. McKinley 
in 1891. Dr. Prentis was married shortly after' graduating to 
Miss Anna Pfeffer. They have one child, Roscoe Johnson Pren- 
tis, aged seven months. The doctor possesses all the traits and 
abilities for making a first-class Representative and has already 
proven his aptitude in this direction. He possesses rare gifts as 
an orator, and during the campaign spoke in different parts of 
his county, his speeches receiving favorable comment everywhere 




116 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

and from all parties. He is a member of and faithful worker in 
the Church of Christ. 

HON. E. G. PERROTT.— The 'Republican who represents 
Dallas county in the House this winter is the Hon. E. G. Perrott 
of Perry. He is one of the men who cast 
his first vote for Eremont at the birth of the 
Republican party, and has remained in line 
ever since. He was born in Northport, New 
York, September 4, 1832. He was educated 
in New York city. At the early age of 11 
he went to sea for three years. Erom the 
,^^^^_ time he was 15 till he was 40 he was engaged 

lil^^l^mi^^^ in ship building. During tliat period he 
^^^^^^^^Hfe iielped to build the America, the first cup 
^^^^^^ ^^^H winner in the yacht races that have been 
^^^^L'^^^^l such events of international interest for a 
'^^^^^^^^^^ long time. Of course he watches these con- 
tests with more than ordinary interest and 
is in favor of the cup remaining here permanently. On coming 
to Iowa he went to farming, which engaged his attention for 
seven years. He is now in the employ of the Chicago, Milwaukee 
& St. Paul railway. He has been a justice of tlie peace, elected 
by the Republicans. He is a member of the Masons, at present 
serving his fourth term as W. M. He belongs to the Congrega- 
tional church. I\Tr. Perrott has been married twice, his first wife 
being Caroline Rogers, the second A. G. Tyrrell. He has two 
children living, Cornelia E. and Mary D. Perrott. He would like 
to see an amendment made to the constitution prohibiting the 
manufacture and sale of intoxicating licjuors in the state. 

HON. CLAUDE R. PORTER.— The youngest meml^er of 
the Twenty-sixth General Assembly is the young Democrat, 
Claude R. Porter, who represents Appanoose county. He was 
born at Moulton, Iowa, July 8, 1872. He lived at Moulton till 
1878, and has been a resident of Centerville ever since. After 
graduating from the Centerville high school he spent a year at 
Parsons College, then another at the St. Louis Law School. He 
was admitted to the bar in October, 1894, and became the junior 
member of the law firm of Porter & Porter. He belongs to the 
Presbyterian church and is superintendent of the Sunday school. 
He is unmarried. This fall he was supported by the Democrats 
and the Populists for the position to which he has been elected. 
Although General Drake conies from Appanoose county, Mr. 
Porter was such a strong candidate that he was elected by a ma- 
jority of over 100 over the Republican nominee, whereas the Re- 
publican majority on the state ticket was in the neighborhood of 
300. 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 



117 



HON. L. F. POTTER. — Pottawattamie county has always 
been well represented in the lowa legislatures, whether its mem- 
bers have been Republicans or Democrats. 
When it came to making" nominations this 
fall the Republicans selected the Hon. L. F. 
Potter of Oakland as one of their candidates 
for the House. He is a native of Wisconsin, 
having been born at Wauwatosa, Milwau- 
kee county, March 27, 1855. He belongs to 
the New England family of Potters, his par- 
ents being L. B. and Hitty Wenzel Potter. 
His father was born in Fitzwilliam, New 
Hampshire, in 181 5, and coming to Milwau- 
kee county in 1839 was one of the pioneers 
of that section. Mr. Potter received an ex- 
cellent education, attending the public 
schools of his native town and Ripon and Beloit (Wisconsin) Col- 
leges. He came to Oakland in 1879 and engaged in the mercan- 
tile business until 1884. In the fall of that year he disposed of his 
mercantile interests and became a partner and cashier in the Citi- 
zens' bank of Oakland, afterward incorporated as the Citizens' 
State bank. He has held numerous local oiBces, such as mayor, 
member of the city council, etc., and has always been a Repub- 
lican. He belongs to the Masons and Kuights of Pythias and at- 
tends the Congregational church regularly. Mr. Potter was mar- 
ried a number of years ago to Miss Martha J. Wood. They have 
no children. 




HON. JOHN T. P. POWER.— One of the members from Lee 
county in the House this winter is the Hon. John T. P. Power, of 
Keokuk. He was born in that city Decem- 
ber 18, 1864, and it has always been his 
home. After completing the school courses 
at Keokuk he attended St. Vincent's Col- 
lege at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. After 
g-raduating- from that institution he spent a 
•Mj^ number of years in teaching at his alma 

'H^S mater, Notre Dame University and St. Ani- 

m^^ brose College, at Davenport. For the past 

four years he has been a practicing attor- 
ney at Keokuk. In 1894 he was elected by 
the Democrats as one of the members of the 
city council of Keokuk, and he has been 
acknowledged as the leader of the Demo- 
crats in that body ever since. He belong's to St. Peter's Roman 
Catholic church. He belongs to the Ancient Order of Hiber- 
nians, and is local secretar}^ of that order. He is also a member of 
the American Sons of Columbus. He was elected grand purser 





118 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

of the latter order at Columbus iu 1893, aud re-elected at Peoria 
this year. Mr. Power is one of the trustees of the Keokuk public 
library. He was married a number of years ago to Aliss Helena 
D. O'Shea. This winter he would' like to see- some legislation 
on the liquor question in line with the policy advocated by the 
Democratic party. 

HON. GEORGE M. PUTNAM.— One of the Pottawattamie 
county members of the House is the Hon. George M. Putnam, of 
Carson. He is a farmer. He was born in 
New Hami:»shire in 1837, and coming from 
a farming family, was apprenticed to that in- 
dustry at an early age in the Granite state, 
jDicking up his education at night and in 
the winter time. He removed in 1853 to Illi- 
nois and engaged in farming there until 1862 
at the breaking out of the war, when, in com- 
mon with his fellows all over the north, he 
enlisted as a volunteer. He joined the 75th 
Illinois Regiment and fought through till 
the rebellion was put down. The 75th saw 
some of the hardest fighting during the en- 
tire war, and under the gallant Colonel J. E. 
Bennett, more th.an once the soldiers of the line distinguished 
themselves by daring achievements. The regimental history 
gives instances of this heroism of the private soldier and the 
colonel himself especially mentions Mr. Putnam for distinguished 
bravery and etiicient service. At the close of tlie war ]\Ir. Put- 
nam resumed his farming and in 1873 he removed to Iowa, locat- 
ing his family on his present farm at Carson. The farm consists 
of 280 acres five miles from the town, and is one of the most 
valuable and successful farms in the county. Mr. Putnam's fam- 
ily consists of a wife and seven children. Mr. Putnam has sev- 
eral times acted as township officer in each of the states in which 
he has resided, and four years ago he was nominated for the Leg- 
islature, but in common with Republicans all over the country he 
was defeated. He is a member of the G. A. R. and Odd Fellows 
and has held most of the offices in both th.ose societies. He at- 
tends the Methodist church. 

HON. D. H. SCOTT.— A father of Republicanism and the old- 
est member of the General Assembly is the Hon. D. H. Scott, of 
Albia, member of the House from Monroe county. He was a 
man of middle age at the organization of the party in 1854 and 
helped it along with his work and his vote. He was born in Flem- 
ing county, Kentucky, June 27, 1825. He lived in Putnam coun- 
ty, Indiana, till 1850, and gained his education in the old log 
school houses of the early day. Coming to Iowa as a pioneer, he 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 119 

settled in Alonroe county, which place has been his home ever 
since. i\lost oi his life has been spent on a farm, but he has now 
retired from that arduous calling. He was married while a young 
man to ^liss ^lary Wills. Five daughters, all married, have been 
born to them. Tliese are Mrs. Clara Codfeltei, Mrs. Laura Camp- 
bell, Airs. Mary E. Smith, Mrs. Amy Dixon. Mr. Scott is an elder 
in the Presbyterian church. He served two years in the army and 
so has become a member of the G. A. R. This winter he will vote 
for the resubmission of the prohibition question to a direct vote 
of the people. 

HON. P. A. SMITH. — Greene county has a new member of 
the House this winter in the Hon. P. A. Smith, of Scranton. He 
- was born in Ogle county, Illinois, September 
I, 1840. He lived there until February, 1856, 
then moved to Clinton county, Iowa. In 
1868 he took up his residence in Greene 
county, where he has since remained. He 
was educated in the common schools. On 
July 12, 1 86 1, he enlisted in Company A, 8th 
Iowa Infantry. He was a member of the 
"Hornet's Nest" brigade at Shiloh, was taken 
prisoner April 6, 1862, with his command, 
was w^ounded in the neck at Old river, Lou- 
isiana, May 16, 1864, and still carries a bul- 
let in his neck. He was musiered out of the 
service September 28, 1864, at Davenport. 
He was married February 9, 1865, to J\Iiss Roxy L. Alger, who 
died November 4, 1892. They had six children, of whom the 
following are living: Lownie W., aged 2"/; Claud D., aged 22; 
E. Gertrude, aged 19; Alary Pearle, aged i5;Orin Lee, aged 10. 
He was married a second time September 4, 1894, to Airs. Alice 
AI. Dreher, who had three children by her former husband. They 
are: Irving, aged 14; Clarence, aged 12, and Veva, aged 10. A'Ir. 
Smith has always been a strong Republican. His first vote was 
cast for Colonel Stone while in the army. He held the postmas- 
tership at Scranton under the administration of President Harri- 
son. He was justice of the peace for nineteen years. Lp to the 
year 1884 he devoted himself entirely to farming, but since then 
he has been editor and proprietor of the Scranton Journal. He is 
a member of the Alasonic fraternity and belongs to the G. A. R. 
Under the administration of Philip Schaller Air. Smith was an 
aid-de-camp on the staff of the department commander. He has 
been commander of the post at Scranton, and is now president of 
the soldiers' relief commission of Greene county. While he is a 
good Republican, Air. Smith is independent and untranmieled 
and can work with anyone who has the welfare of the people at 
heart and is striving to promote the interests of Iowa. 




120 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 



HOX. WILLIAM G. RAY.— William G. Ray, of Grinnell, 
nuMnl)cr of the House from Poweshiek county, was born in 
liarry county, Michigan, l^^bruary i8, 1857. 
At the age of 3- years he went to New York. 
l^^iftccn years of his life he lived in New York 
state, coming to (irinnell, Iowa, in 1875. 
^^g^. There he remained till 1882, in June of which 

^t_\ y<-''ii' he graduated from Iowa College. For 

^^■pi* the next year he was in charge of the schools 

^■m|K of Delta, Keokuk county. From 1883 to 

^^HpV^ 1887 he was principal of the Guthrie county 

^Jl^yjPP liigli school at Panora. Since then he has 

^* '■ *" resided in Grinnell, the first three years as 

superintendent of city schools, and later as 
editor of the Grinnell Herald. The name of 
the firm as at first constituted was Cravath & 
Ray, l)ut it has since been changed to Ray & MacDonald. Mi: 
Ray is a married man, his wife's maiden name being Sara Haines. 
He has always been a Republican. He belongs to the Knights 
of Pythias, and has held the offices of chancellor commander, dele- 
gate to the grand lodge and district deputy. He is also a member 
of the Odd Fellows. He Ixdongs to the Congregational church. 
At present he is president of the school board of the independent 
district of Grinnell. 



H(_)N. J. V. RFED.— One member of the House who will take 

a special interest in school matters this winter is the Hon. J. F. 

Reed, of Nevada, whom the people of 

, Story county chose to represent them. He 

has been engaged in school work ever 
^■jjk. since he began to take care of himself, and 

^^ ^^ is well informed as to the needs and improve- 

^^■W ments in laws and methods which will be pre- 

J/^f sented for the consideration of the members 

>^^^w this winter. J\Ir. Reed was born in Marshall 

.^^aajpM^^^ countv, October 17, 1863. lentil 18 years of 
^^^H ^^^H age he lived in his native county, then he be- 
^^^^^ ^^^^M gan the task of educating himself in the 
^^^^^^^^^M schools of the state. He attended the com- 
^^^^^^^^^™ mon schools, Albion Seminary and the Iowa 
State Normal school. After graduating from 
the normal school he located in Zearing and was elected principal 
of the Zearing schools, which position he occupied for six years. 
He was elected county superintendent of schools in 1891 and re- 
elected in 1893. He has always been an active Republican, assist- 
ing in campaign work even before he was of age. He was mar- 
ried about eight years ago to ^Nliss Emily Oakes. They have two 
children: Joyce, aged 6, and Elephelet, aged 4. Mr. Reed be- 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 121 

longs to the Odd Fellows and Masons, and is hig-h priest of the 
chapter of Royal Arch Masons of which he is a member. 

HON. E. C. SPAULDING. — A third term is what the Floyd 

county Republicans have given the Hon. E. C. Spaulding of JNIar- 

ble Rock in recognition of the work he did 

in the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Gen- 

_ eral Assemblies. He was born in New 

l^""^ Hampshire, March 12, 1838, and has lived 

L ■ in Iowa twenty-four years, all the time on 

m Jw I'iis farm in Floyd county. He attended the 

mt^m common schools in New Hampshire and was 

JhF^W preparing to enter Dartmouth College when 

^gfl^^AjJI^ ill health compelled him to give up that plan. 

^^^K^^^^^M Coming west he taught school for some 

9^H|^^HH time in Beloit. Clinton and Hudson, Wiscon- 

^^pHI^^^^ sin. In his home township he has held the 

offices of assessor and president of the school 

board. In the Twenty-fourth General Assem- 
bly he was a member of the ways and means committee, chairman 
of the committee on normal schools; also on the committees on 
public charities, compensation of public officers, schools and text 
Ijooks, agriculture, retrenchment and reform, college for the blind, 
woman suffrage. In the Twent3^-fifth General Assembly he was 
chairman of the committee on normal schools, and a member of 
the committees on ways and means, schools and text books, re- 
trenchment and reform, college for the blind, board of public 
charities and fish and game. It is an unusual honor for Floyd 
count}^ to bestow a third term on any official, but Mr. Spaulding 
has shown ability as well as faithful work in the position, so the 
honor is merited. The .farmers of Floyd county believe the best 
way to have their interests represented is to keep one of their 
number where laws are made, consequently they gave Mr. Spauld- 
ing the unprecedented Legislative majority in Floyd county of 
999. Mr. Spaulding was at one time a member of the Masonic fra- 
ternity, but is not now connected with the order. He is a member 
of the Congregational church. 

HON. J. A. THOMPSON.— -John Aimer Thompson, of 
Arlington, the choice of the Republicans of Fayette county for 
Representative, was born in Carroll county, Ohio, May 3, 1854. 
His father is Morris J. Thompson, who moved to Fairfield town- 
ship in Fayette county in 1855, when John A. was less than a year 
old, so that the subject of this sketch has been a citizen of the 
county just forty years. His life has been spent there, and none 
are more closely related or more thoroughly identified with all 
the interests of Fayette county than John A. Thompson. His 
early life as a pioneer deprived him of many of the advantages of 



122 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 

a schooling, but in the intervals of labor on his father's farm he 
acquired all that was taught in the country school, the mere rudi- 
ments of an education ; but this to an ambitious boy, with an hon- 
est purpose, a good brain and a somid body, is often of more value 
than a college diploma to one lacking all these natural qualities. 
At the age of 17 Mr. Thompson retired from the farm and began 
work in one of the stores in Brush Creek, in time embarking in 
business for himself on a small capital, and which by careful man- 
agement has grown to proportions unsurpassed by any mercantile 
establishment in the county. In politics Mr. Thompson has been 
particularly successful, having been elected and re-elected three 
times as a member of the board of supervisors. His services of 
nine years in this important place tested him in the crucible of 
public opinion. He proved himself honest and capable, display- 
ing a clearness of judgment, fearlessness in the performance of 
(lut\-, and a purpose to deal fairly and justly by all, that won for 
liim the respect and confidence of his party if not of every citizen 
of the county, and in the public estimation earned for him a pro- 
motion to a higher place when he was ready to accept it. 



HON. R. T. ST. JOHN.— A Union soldier and faithful official 

represents Mitchell county in the House of Representatives of the 

Twentv-sixth General Assembly. Robert T. 

I 1 St. John, of Rice, is an old resident of ]\Iitch- 

ell county, and everyone v\-ho has heard of 

J him has the utmost confidence in his ability 

L and integrity. He was born July 14. 1846, at 

1 Elizabeth, jo Daviess county, Illinois, and 

%" spent part of his childhood there. He came 

to the farm near Riceville in 1859, where he 
^ has ever since made his home. He received 

1^1^ a liberal education in the common schools 
^H and the Cedar \''alley Seminary. When but 
^H a lad of 16, his patriotism led him to offer his 

services in defense of his country. He was 

a member of Company A, 7th Illinois Cav- 



alry, and was mustered out in October, 1866, married soon after 
and settled on a farm. After holding several different positions 
of public trust, he consented to accept the office of constable and 
while holding that office did some very clever detective work and 
succeeded in breaking up several hard gangs. This brought him 
into prominence as excellent material for the sheriff's office, and in 
the fall of 1881, he was elected sheriff and A\as continued in that 
office for five terms by large majorities, regardless of political 
differences. He gained an enviable record and was elected presi- 
dent of the Iowa Sheriffs' Association in 1877. In secret societies 
his affiliations are the Knight Templars, Odd Fellows and Grand 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OP 1896. 123 

Army of the Republic. He is a Congregational church man. In 
the Legislature he will pay special attention to temperance, agri- 
culture, good roads, taxation and compensation of public officers, 
which subjects have been more forcibly called to his attention than 
any others. Mr. St. John was one of the most influential mem- 
bers of the last General Assembly. He did effective work both on 
the floor and "in the committees. He was chairman of the com- 
mittee on compensation of public officers, and served as a mem- 
ber of the committees on schools and text books, normal schools, 
agriculture, telegraphs, telephones and express, institution for 
feeble minded. The people of his district indorsed his record by 
renominating" him by acclamation at the last county convention 
and electing him by a majority far in the lead of the state ticket. 
He was ahead of the ticket in almost every voting precinct in the 
district. 

HON. GEORGE H. VAN HOUTEN.— He was born in Atch- 
ison county, Missouri, February 24, 1847. He moved to Madi- 
son county, Iowa, in 1848, and to Cass county 
about four years later. He has lived in Tay- 
lor county since April, 1855. He enlisted in 
the 29th Iowa Infantry, in 1863, but was re- 
jected. Enlisted in 8th Cavalry, but was re- 
jected. January i, 1864, enlisted at Otter- 
ville, Missouri, in Company E, 4th Missouri 
State Mounted Cavalry, and was mustered 
out July 5, 1865, at St. Louis. He returned 
home and then went west. He then returned 
home and went to school. In 1866 he went 
to the territory then recently acquired of the 
Indians, now part of Kansas, returning 
through Missouri. He was married to Miss 
Selina A. Jenks, December 23, 1866. Seven daughters and five 
sons have blessed the union; all are living. Mr. Van Houten has 
been engaged in farming, teaching school and stock-raising. He 
has been engaged in newspaper work several times, and has been 
a correspondent and contributor for the press for many years, 
writing on many subjects. He was appointed treasurer of' Tay- 
lor county in 1884. Had served as deputy for Mr. King, who de- 
faulted, and was appointed to succeed hini. He was nominated to 
fill vacancy, but defeated in the election by his competitor in late 
contest for member of the Legislature. He was a candidate for 
lieutenant-governor in 1891, with Mr. Wheeler, and advocated the 
principles of Republicanism throughout that campaign, generally 
speaking twice a day. He has generally taken part in other cam- 
paigns for many years, except one year when not in the United 
States. He has always been a Republican. He has attauied to 
the council degrees in Masonry and has held the office of W. M. 




124 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 

and most others below. He l^elongs to the O. E. S. In Odd Fel- 
lowship he has held the rank of C. P. and X. G. and lower offices. 
He is also a niendier of the Grange and has held most elective 
offices in the subordinate organiza-tion. He is a meniber of the 
G. A. R. and S. of V., and was colonel of the Iowa Division in 
1891-2. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and other 
organizations. Air. \"an Houten is a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church and holds a local preacher's license. 

HON. HANSOX P>. WATTERS.— Hanson B. Wattcrs, of 
Atalissa, Representative-elect from Muscatine county, is and al- 
ways has been a farmei. He was born in 
Beimont, Belmont county, Ohio, December 
9, 1840, the eldest son of Dr. W. W. and 
Teresa D. Walters. The family moved to 
Iowa in April, 1851, and began farming in 
' ^ Muscatine county. He received a fair com- 

.'^B mon school education, and in 1858 entered 

^^^U^^^^ the preparatory department at Western Col- 

j|^^^^^^^p lege, at Western, Linn county, which insti- 
^^^liw^l^^ tution he left at the end of his freshman year 

to enter the military service, enlisting as a 
private in Captain Lundy's company, 'in 
August, 1 861. He was mustered into the 
United States service as a sergeant of Com- 
pany G, 2d Iowa Cavalry, September 14, 1861. He re-enlisted as 
a veteran in March, 1864, and was finally mustered out of the serv- 
ice with his regiment in October, 1865. The following year he 
commenced work on his father's farm and in 1867 bought a tract 
of wild land and began the building of a home. He was mar- 
ried December 24, 1868, to Ruth H. Parker. They have five sons, 
the two eldest having attained their majority. His farm now con- 
sists of 320 acres in Muscatine county, and an additional tract of 
100 acres in Cedar county. He has always been a Republican. 
He received the nomination of his party for Representative in 
1893 without effort on his part, and \> as elected a member of the 
Twenty-fifth General Assembly. In that body he was a mem- 
ber of the committees on the suppression of intemperance, roads 
and highways, agricultural college, college for the blind, soldiers' 
orphans' home, board of public charities, labor and woman suf- 
frage. 

HON. STL-RGIS WILLIAAIS.— The member of the House 
from Fremont county is the Hon. Sturgis Williams, of Percival. 
He is a Republican, a farmer, born in New York, and has lived 
in Iowa thirty -nine years. Two years ago he was a member of 
the committees on schools and text books, normal schools, claims, 
compensation of public officers, roads and highways, elections. 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 



125 



HON. T. J. SULLIVAN.— The member of the House from 

Clayton county, the Hon. T. J. SulHvan, of McGregor, is a man 

who has made a success of Hfe, one who has 

retired from active pursuits, and can now 

I give his constituents the benefit of experience 
jg||^ ' in his work as a law-maker. He was born in 
; qjl . Norwich, Connecticut, August 29, 1851. 

***'^ Coming to McGregor at the age of 10, he 

JMv made it his permanent residence. His edu- 

^ ^wk^ cation was received in the schools of Mc- 

'^d||[HMMl||[b Gregor. At the age of 18 he began clerking 
aH^^^^^HP in the dry goods house belonging to Thomas 
^HHBH^ Arnold. Subsequently he was employed in 
■^^m^^^ ^\^Q wholesale dry goods house. of. Strause_,& 

Rowe. In 1876 he began working in the 
clothing store of L. J. Strause. In 1884 he 
purchased the business. This he conducted till March of the pres- 
ent year, when he retired from active business life. He was mar- 
ried to Miss Anna B. Korte. They have two children: Marie, 
aged 9, and T. J. Raymond, aged 4. Mr. Sullivan belongs to the 
Catholic church. He is a pronounced Democrat. He is at pres- 
ent a member of the city council of McGregor. This winter he 
will use his best efforts to secure the enactment of a local option 
high license law, and the repeal of the prohibition and mulct laws. 



HON. H. O. WEAVER.— H. O. Weaver, of Wapello, was born 
in Marshall township, Louisa county, April 20, 1866. The early 
3^ears of his life were spent on the farm. He 
attended village school during the winter 
months. At the age of 18 he began to pre- 
pare for college, and as a means of raising 
funds he taught school during the years 1886- 
7. In the fall of 1887 he entered the col- 
legiate department of the Iowa State Uni- 
versity, from which he graduated in June, 
1891. A year later he graduated from the 
law department of the State University. Re- 
turning to Louisa county, he began the prac- 
tice of law at Wapello, where he has been ac- 
tively engaged ever since. From the start he 
has taken an active interest in political mat- 
ters. He was made chairman of the Republican county central 
committee of Louisa county in 1892, and served in that capacity 
for two years. The same year he was chosen a member of the 
Republican state central committee from the First Congressional 
district. This year he Avas again chosen for the same place. In 
the fall of 1893 he was nominated by the Republicans for the 
House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth General Assembly. 




126 



THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 



In the election he received a majority of 800 votes over his oppo- 
nent. His work in the last Legislature was of a very high char- 
acter. He introduced and secured the passage of a measure 
exempting registered pharmacists from jury duty. He was-chairr 
man of the committee on the State University, was chosen mem- 
ber of the sifting committee from his Congressional district, served 
on the judiciary committee and was recognized as a very influ- 
ential men-.ber. Both on the floor and in committee he is an ex- 
cellent worker. 



H(1N. ( ). O. TIBBITTS. — Bremer county sends a new mail 
to the House this winter in the Hon. O. O. Tibbitts, of Sumner. 
He was born in Canada in 1853, but has 
spent all his life in the United States. He 
lived for eight years in Michigan, seven years 
^^ in Wisconsin and the remainder of the time 

»*^ in Iowa. He received his education in the 

|p^ri»«t common schools, and has followed a mer- 

cantile career since entering upon active life. 
He has been married about twenty years, his 
wife's maiden name being May L. Tower. 
They have two daughters: Mae, aged 16, 
and Pearl, aged 12. He is a member of the 
Knights of Pythias and has been chancellor 
commander of his lodge Though not a 
member of any church, he attends them all. 
He has held quite a number of local offices, and has always been 
elected by the votes of the Republicans. Bremer county is very 
close politically, and it is a glowing tribute to the personal worth 
of Mr. Tibbitts that he was elected Representative. 




HON. NELSON 
from Jasper county i 




A. WT^LLS. — The member of the House 
s the Hon. Nelson A. Wells, of Newton. He 
was born in Norwich, Vermont, June 2, 1853. 
In 1856 the family moved to Davenport, 
Iowa, and there remained for twenty vears. 
In 1876 they moved to Crawford county. 
Ten years later Mr. Wells took up his resi- 
dence in Jasper county, where he has since 
resided. While living in Davenport he at- 
tended the common schools and received a 
good education. Mr. Wells has spent nearly 
all his life on the farm. More than twenty 
years ago he was married to Miss Emma 
Benefiel.^ They have five children, the eld- 
est, William B., aged 19, being a cadet in the 
United States naval academy at Annapolis, 
aged 16; Shelley H., 



Marvland. The others are: Leonard A 




THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. 127 

aged 13; Edith P., aged 9, and Mattie E., aged 6. Mr. Wells has 
held about all the township offices, always elected thereto by the 
Republican party. He is a member of the Odd Fellows and be- 
longs to the Methodist church. 

HON. M. K. WHELAN.— It is not often that a candidate for 

office has no opposition either for the nomination or election. 

Such was the case with the Hon. M. K. Whe- 

lan, of Estherville, member of the House 

Pfrom the district composed of Emmet, Dick- 
j^M^ inson, and Osceola counties. At the county 

convention of Emmet county, in which he 
resides, a resolution was unanimously 
adopted instructing him to select ihis own 
delegates to the district convention. When 
that body met at Sibley there was no oppo- 
sition to him and he was no^minated by a 
unanimous vote. The parties in opposition 
to the Republicans made no nomination for 
the office of Representative, so he was elected 
without any effort. Mr. Whelan was born in 
Ireland in 1856. His boyhood was spent in his native country, 
and his education was gained there. On coming to Iowa he set- 
tled for a short time in Davis county, then mo^ed to Emmet 
county, where he has lived for the last nineteen years. During 
that time he has been engaged in a variety of pursuits, teaching 
school, clerking, proprietor of a hardware store, and for eleven 
years sheriit of Emmet county. vSince cjuitting that office he has 
been in the real estate business. In politics he has always been an 
active Republican, serving as county chairman seven years and as 
a member of the state central committee from the Tenth Congres- 
sional district four years. He is pretty well up in Masonic circles, 
being a charter member of North Star lodge. No. 447, A. F. and 
A. M., and a charter member of Esdraelon commandery, No. 52, 
Knights Templar. In the latter he has held the positions of senior 
warden, captain general, generalissimo and eminent commander. 
Mr. Whelan was married a number of years ago to Miss Mary 
E. Tilton. 

HON. HENRY VOELKER.— The city member from 
Dubuque county is the Hon. Henry Voelker, of Dubuque. He is 
a Democrat. 

HON. M. L. TEMPLE.— The Representative from Clarke 
county is a strong Republican who believes in loyalty to the party 
above all things, and who works hard for its success. The Hon. 
M. L. Temple, of Osceola, is the man elected. He is a member of 
the Republican state central committee. 



128 THE IOWA LEGISLATURE OF 1896. " 

IIOX. JOHX L. WILSON.— Tlie Hon. John L. Wilson, mem- 
l)fr of the Ii(juse from CHnton county, was born at Elk River, 
Iowa, October 25, 1857. He was brought up on the farm and 
besides attending the schools of his inmiediate neighborhood was 
given the advantage of a course in the business college at Clin- 
ton. Since leaving school he has resided quietly on his farm. In 
political matters he affiliates with the Democratic party. He was 
tt)wnship clerk for eight years, collector for three years, and served 
one term as treasurer of the school board of his township. He 
belongs to the Masons and Knights of Pythias. He attends the 
Presbyterian church. Two years ago he was a member of the 
special committee to decide the election contest from Jacksop 
county, and he served on the committees on appropriations, rail- 
roads and commerce, agriculture, horticulture, medicine and sur- 
gery, claims, private corporations, industrial schools, institution 
for feeble minded and Representative districts. In the contest this 
fall he received the lughest vote of any candidate on the ticket in 
his county. 

HON. A. L. WOOD. — Madison county's member of the 

House of Representatives this session, as in the last two, is a news- 

•paper man. Hon. A. L. Wood is editor of 

1 the Winterset Reporter and comes to the 

Legislature in the prime of his manhood for 

^^^ his second term. He was born at Montpelier, 

J^^% Vermont, February 14, 1863. His education 

fe| tc. fr was obtained in the common schools and by 

111^ a course in Simpson College at Indianola, • 

5^ Iowa. Mr. Wood came with his parents to 

^^^mtgi^^^ Madison county twenty-five years ago, and 

^^^^Tj^^H with the exception of a few months spent in 

^^^^k J^H Dakota, has resided th.ere constantly, the 

^mPPiyPIJPPJ greater part of his life. During his early 

years he put in some hard work on the farm, 

then tried shoemaking, school teaching and 

finally turned to printing. This proved so congenial that he has 

remained in t:ie Inisiness ever since. He has had eleven years' 

experience as editor. For four years he efficiently transacted the 

duties of postmaster at St. Charles, which is the only office he has 

ever sought. Judging from the way he has managed things for 

the Republican party in Madison county, and his work two years 

ago, he will do hard and effective work in the House this winter. 

^Ir. Wood is married. 



INDEX, 



Page. 

Aldrich, C. A... 27 

Alexander, J. S 45 

Allen, W. S 77 

Allison, W. B 32 

Allyn, G. S 46 

Bailey, C. F 80 

Baker, Geo. T 78 

Bell, Thos 78 

Bell, Wm. B 47 

Berry, W. H 47 

Bird, J. W 81 

Blanchard, L. C 45 

Boardman, W. K .21 

Benson, Robert 48 

Bowen, D. H 80 

Brady, E. M 81 

Brig-hton, H. H 81 

Brinton. M. H 80 

Byers, H. L 48 

Byers, H. W 81 

Byington, O. A 83 

Carney, J. L 49 

Carpenter, C. A 50 

Carroll, B. F 51 

Chapman, W. B 83 

Cheshire, T. A .52 

Clark, J. M 33 

Clark, S. M 82 

Classen, J. B.. 86 

Conaway, F. R 22 

Cook, R. E 84 

Cornwall, W. W 84 

Cousins, R. G 35 

Craig, G. M 53 

Creighton, Mrs. L. C 24 

Crow, W. G. 85 

Curtis, G. M 34 

Davidson, C. L 13 

Davis, M. J 88 

Deemer, H. E 17 

Dolliver, J. P 38 

Doubleday, O. E 87 

Dowell, C. C 86 

Downey, John 53 

Drake, F. M 6 

Druet. S 57 

Dungan. W. S 7 

Early, C. L 87 

Eaton, Wm 56 

Edwards, A. H 89 

Ellis. L. A 54 

Ellison, F. 55 

Ericson, C. J. A 56 

Evans, H. K 89 

Everall, John 57 



Page. 

Finch, P 90 

Frazee, John... 90 

Frink, O. H 91 

Funk, A. B 60 

Funk, J. H 91 

Garner, J. A 92 

Garst, Warren 58 

Gear, J. H 32 

Gilbertson, G. E 58 

Given, J 15 

Good, J. L 93 

Gorrell, J. R 59 

Granger, C. T 18 

Griswold, H. J 93 

Grote, J. F 93 

Gurley, Z. H 94 

Hager, A. L 38 

Harper, T. G 60 

Harriman, W. F 61 

Haugen, G. N 95 

Hauger, W. E 96 

Hazen, J. B 97 

Healey, Thos. D 61 

Henderson, D. B 62 

Henderson, G. W 34 

Hendershot, I. B 97 

Hepburn, W. P 37 

Harriot, John 10 

Hinkhouse, R. W 97 

Hinman, S. N 95 

Hipwell, C. G 62 

Historical Department 26 

Hobart, A. C 63 

Hospers, Henry 65 

Hotchkiss, A. C 67 

Hull, J. A. T 37 

Hunt, Wm. B 97 

Huntley, L. S 98 

Hurst, Alfred 63 

Jackson, A. E 98 

Jackson, F. D 5 

Jay, J. T 99 

Johnson, Jonas P 100 

Johnston, C. F 99 

Jones, C. T 20 

Junkin, J. M 68 

Kilburn, L. M 64 

Kinne, L. G 19 

Klemme, W. H 100 

Lacey, J. F 36 

Ladd. W. G 101 

Lambert, J. S 102 

Lauder, J. W 101 

Lavender, J. F 103 

Leathers, M. W 104 



130 



INDEX. 



Pagp. 

Lehfeldt. R 66 

Lothrop, J. S 66 

Loomis, A. M 102 

Lowry, J. J 104 

Luke, J. W 13 

Manahan, F. B 105 

Marti, Chris 106 

Martin, W. B 106 

Mayne, S. W 107 

McAchran, W. H 107 

McArthur, W. C lOS 

McCarthy. C. G 9 

McClelland, F 107 

McFarland, W. M 11 

McDonald, M. H lOS 

McDowell, J lOS 

McMillan, H. G 40 

McNulty, F 109 

McQuin, B. M !10 

Merrell, N. A 109 

Merriam, F. F 110 

Miller, D. C Ill 

Miller, John Ill 

Miller, Wireman 112 

Mitchell, W. 73 

Morrison, John 113 

Morrison, J. D 112 

Mullin, Wash 112 

Nietert, H. J 112 

Nolan, Thos 113 

O'Bleness. W. E 2.5 

Palmer, D. J 70 

Parker, John 113 

Parrott, Matt 8 

Penrose, E. G 72 

Perkins, Geo. D 39 

Perkins, Geo. W 14 

Perrott, E. G 116 

Perrin, W. B 72 

Phelps, Julian 67 

Porter. C. L 116 



Page. 

Potter, L. F 117 

Power, J. T. P 117 

Prentis, P. L 115 

Prime, J. R 23 

Pusey, N. M 67 

Putnam, G. M 118 

Ranck, C. S 41 

Ray, W. G 120 

Reed, J. F 120 

Remley, Milton 20 

Riggen, J. A 69 

Robinson, G. S 17 

Rothrock, J. H 15 

Rowen. J. E 76 

Sabin, Henry 12 

Saling-er, B. 1 21 

Sargent, E. M 75 

Scott, D. H 118 

Smith, P. A 119 

Soldiers' Monument 28 

Spaulding, E. C 121 

St. John, R. T 122 

Sullivan, T. J 125 

Temple, M. L 127 

Thompson, J. A 121 

Tibbitts, O. O 126 

Trewin, J. H 74 

Updegraff , Thos .35 

Upton, C. C 70 

VanHouten, Geo. F 123 

Voelker, Henry 127 

Waterman, H. L 71 

Walters, H. B 124 

Weaver, H. O 125 

Wells, N. A 126 

Wheeler, J. R 127 

Whelan, M. K 127 

Williams, Sturgis 124 

Wilson, J. L 128 

Wood, A. L 128 

Young, D. H 74 



